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NATHANIEL GODDARD 

A BOSTON MEECHANT 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 

From the original portrait by Badger, owned by Mrs. John G. Walker 



NATHANIEL GODDAED 

A BOSTON MEKCHAtfT 

1767-1853 




Printed at &\>t HttocrmDe JJtcfis 

for private Distribution 

1906 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 2$ ! 906 

Copyright Entry 

ouss a, xxc 

/(o/ZJZ 
COPY 8. 



No. 



% 



£# 



COPYRIGHT 1906 
BY HENRY G. PICKERING 



To the Memory of 
Lucretia Dana Goddard 
Wife of f 
Nathaniel Goddard 



The story of Nathaniel Goddard's early life, 
being the first thirty years or thereabouts, is told 
by himself in the Narrative which forms the 
basis of this sketch. It was written at the request 
of his children in his later years, and is here 
given practically entire. Such portions only 
have been omitted as relate to instances of dis- 
honest dealing or ungenerous treatment, as they 
appeared to him, in the daily conduct of affairs, 
and which it is impossible to give without names 
or such allusion as could hardly fail to identify 
the persons concerned. It is enough to say that 
his views were those of a man to whom fair 
dealing was a first essential in all the relations of 
life, and that they are expressed in the forcible 
fashion of one upon whose mind the incidents 
themselves had made an ineffaceable impression. 
Outside of the Narrative there is unfortunately 
but scant material for a connected account of 
his private life. The domestic incidents related 
are from the recollection of members of the 
family circle, now become almost a tradition, or 
from the few private letters which have been 
preserved ; his own correspondence, which exists 



vm 



only as of odd dates and intervals, dealing almost 
exclusively with the detail of the counting-room 
and the daily routine of mercantile affairs. But 
it is hoped that the record, imperfect as it must 
needs be, of an honorable business career and 
a devoted home life, will be of interest to his 
grandchildren and great-grandchildren, for whom 
it has been especially prepared. 

The genealogy of the family makes no pre- 
tense to completeness, but is given as establish- 
ing in its main branches the successive genera- 
tions of an ancient and creditable lineage. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Nathaniel Goddard Frontispiece 

From the original portrait by Badger, owned by Mrs. John G. 
Walker 

Old Manor House at Swindon-Wilts 6 

From a photograph by Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, Esq. 

Home of Benjamin Goddard, Brookline, Mass. . . 28 
From a photograph by L. Shannon Davis, Esq. 

Old "Gardner" House 30 

On the estate of Benjamin Goddard 

From a photograph by L. Shannon Davis, Esq. 

Birthplace of Nathaniel Goddard ....... 44 

Goddard Avenue, Brookline 

Schoolhouse in Brookline, Mass 50 

Where Nathaniel Goddard attended school 

Old Barn 60 

Goddard Homestead Estate 

Facsimile of Original Accounting 102 

A Map and Chart of Passamaquoddy and Machias, by 
Benjamin R. Jones, 1810 124 

Lucretia (Dana) Goddard, Wife of Nathaniel God- 
dard 142 * 

From a miniature in the possession of Mrs. Henry S. Bush and 
Miss Mary G. McMurtrie 

Summer Street Home of Nathaniel Goddard . . . 146 
From a pencil sketch by Henry Weld Fuller, Esq. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 



While frequent entries of the name of Goddard, 
or Godard, as anciently spelled, 1 are found in 
the Domesday from the time of Henry the First, 
the earliest mention of a settlement in Wiltshire, 
which may properly be regarded as the family's 
original English home, is of the reign of Henry 
the Third, when Walter Godard "Ville" or 
"Vil" 2 (also written "GodarviU") held lands 
at Chippenham and Aldbourne in that county. 
His "Inquisitio Post Mortem" is dated in the 
thirty-fourth year of that reign (a. d. 1250), and 
shows that he left as his heirs two daughters, 
Joan, aged fifteen, and Margery, aged six years. 
The possibility of succession from Walter God- 
ard through male issue is thereby excluded, and 
although the names of John and Edmond God- 
dard appear of subsequent record, no data are 
found to establish these or either of them as of 
the direct line of descent. 

1 Other spellings are "Goddart," "Godred" and Godderte." The 
name is undoubtedly Saxon in its origin, and by derivation would seem to 
signify "goodly" or "well-disposed." 

2 A termination subsequently discarded. 



4 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

In the year 1454 was proven the will of John 
Godard of Poulton "juxta Marlborough Wilts," 
bearing date of the first of November of the 
preceding year, and containing bequests to 
Myldenhall Church, where he is buried, and to 
the Church in Aldbourne. This will mentions 
" John my son, " and a daughter, Cecily, married 
to Thomas Fyssher. 1 John Goddard therein 
named appears to have been succeeded in the 
next generation by his son, Walter Goddard of 
Cherill, or "Chevell," County of Wilts, and the 
latter by his second son, John Goddard of Upham 
in Aldbourne, who married Elizabeth, daughter 
of William Berenger of Manningford Bruce, 
Wilts. 2 With him begins the authentic pedigree 
of "Goddard of Upham," continuing unbroken 
in direct line to William Goddard, the first set- 
tler of the name in America, as will hereafter 
appear. His will, dated twenty-ninth August, 
1556 (3, 4 Philip and Mary), proved February 
4, 1557/8, mentions a deed dated eighth July, 
1538 (30 Henry VIII), of Sir Anthony Hunger- 
ford, Knight, and himself covenanting marriage 
between his son and heir, John Goddard, and 
Elizabeth Fetiplace, and devises lands to chil- 

r * Fragmenta Genealogica by F. A. Crisp, vol. vii, containing abstracts 
of Goddard wills at Somerset House from 1417 to 1605, by Rainald 
W. K. Goddard. 

Visitation of Wilts, by Bluemantle, 1569. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 5 

dren and grandchildren in Uppam (sic), Wan- 
borough, Wootton Bassett, etc. 

John Goddard of Upham (and Swindon) held 
lands in the counties of Wilts (Marlborough 
and Upham) and Berks by grant from Henry 
VIII, and also tenements and lands in Wiggles- 
tote in the Parish of Wroughton, and in North 
Tidmouth, County of Hants, lately belonging to 
the Abbey of Bradenstock. To him also be- 
longed the manor and advowson of Clyffe (or 
Cleve) Pypard, alienated in the same reign from 
the monastery of Lacock. 

The original charter of the Manor and Free 
Warren of Clyffe Pypard, dated August 1, 1304 
(32 Edward I), was to Roger de Cobham, 
from whose family it passed through mesne con- 
veyance to the Godards. 1 This charter, a parch- 
ment bearing the seal of Edward the First, and 
also the original grant of the "imprepuate rectory 
and advowson of the Vicarage of Clyffe from 
King Henry the Eighth to John Godard. de 
Upham," dated September 30, 1531, are now 
in the possession of Frances Agnes Wilson, only 
surviving child of the late owner, Horatio Nelson 
Goddard, Esq., deceased, and wife of Admiral 
Wilson, R. N., of Cliffe House, Cliffe Pypard. 

1 The immediate grantor would seem to have been one William 
Dauntesey, an alderman of London, who, on April 26, 1530, conveyed the 
manor to John Godard of Aldbourne. 



6 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

The Vicarage, situated near Wootton Bassett, still 
exists, the present Vicar being the Rev. Edward 
Hungerford Goddard, son of the late Canon 
Francis Goddard of Hilmarton, a younger brother 
of Horatio Nelson Goddard. 1 By failure of the 
male line direct, therefore, the title of Goddard of 
Clyffe Pypard, after descending from father to 
son for three hundred and seventy years, no 
longer exists, except in the person of the Vicar. 
John Goddard of Upham gave Clyffe Pypard 
to his oldest son John, and Swindon to his second 
son Thomas. The direct line of the Swindon 
family became extinct in 1740, when Ambrose 
Goddard "of Rudloe," great-great-grandson of 
Edward Goddard of Englesham, succeeded to the 
estate by will. Ambrose Goddard was educated 
at Winchester School 2 and was M. P. for Wilt- 
shire in the Parliament of 1772 and for thirty 
years thereafter. He was a man of independent 
views and action in political life, and an earnest 
and outspoken opponent of the American war. 

1 The church, in the village of Aldbourne (architecture of the period 
late Henry Seventh and showing the Tudor rose in the stained glass), 
contains memorial windows to members of the family, an altar tomb 
erected in 1555 to one of the Goddards, and a supposed tomb of the Cob- 
hams. From County Topographies, Wiltshire. 

2 On a visit to the school in 1890, Mrs. John G. Walker was told 
that the right of appointment still inhered in the family of Goddard as 
" founder's kin, " and could be exercised at the present day. A portrait 
of one of the Goddards, said to have been contemporary with William of 
Wykeham, hangs in one of the rooms. 



OLD MANOR HOUSE AT SWINDON- WILTS 
From a photograph by Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, Esq. 




¥m%& 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 7 

Thomas Goddard of Ogbourne x second son of 
the preceding, married Anne, daughter of Sir 
William Gifford. His will, proved May 12, 1598, 
names two sons, Richard and James, to the 
former of whom are devised his lands and tene- 
ments. 

Richard Goddard of Swindon and Upham, 
eldest son of the preceding, married Elizabeth, 2 
daughter of Thomas Walrond of Olborne. Will 
proved May 8, 1615. He lived on the old estate 
at Upham, which was originally a "Royal 
Chase," but the old royal "hunting-box," whose 
foundations are to be traced near by, was de- 
molished by an elder generation of the family 
and the present house built in 1599. This is now 
used as a farm-building, and contains the arms 
of the royal dukes of Lancaster cut in stone over 
the hall fireplace, and undoubtedly removed from 
the older house when it was destroyed. 

Since 1898, when he inherited from his father, 
Ambrose Lethbridge Goddard, this property has 
been owned by Major Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard 

1 This title is now extinct. 

2 Elizabeth (Walrond) Goddard's mother was of the family of Kebble- 
whyte, in whom, as of kin to the founder, Sir Thomas White, was 
vested the right of appointment to six fellowships at St. John's College, 
Oxford. This right was recognized as late as the year 1859, in the person 
of Francis Aspinwall Goddard, her lineal descendant. 

Thomas Goddard, fourth son of Edward Goddard of Englesham, was 
a Fellow of the College tempore Charles I. 



8 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

of "The Lawn," Swindon, who is lord of the 
manors of Swindon and Aldbourne. The Up- 
ham estate, containing the old family manor 
house above referred to, consists of about two 
thousand acres, and Swindon of about five thou- 
sand, the gross rental being some nine thousand 
pounds per annum. The " Goddard Arms " is 
one of the hotels in Swindon, the town being 
to-day an important railway junction. 

Edward Goddard, second son and third child 
of Richard, known as " Goddard of Englesham," 
County of Berks, born in 1584, matriculated at 
University College, Oxford, in 1601, and married 
Presilla, daughter of John D'Oyley, of Chisel- 
hampton, Oxon, by his wife Ursula, daughter of 
Edward Cope and Elizabeth his wife, and sister 
of Sir Anthony Cope, Bart., of Han well. May 10, 
1634, he purchased the manor of Aldbourne in 
the County of Wilts. 1 

The family of D'Oyley, anciently spelled 
D'Oiley, came to England with William the First, 
and were created Barons Hooknorton in the 
County of Oxford. One of them built Oxford 
Castle and another founded Oseney Priory, Ox- 
ford. 2 It became extinct in the male branch, when 

1 The original indenture is now in the possession of R. W. K. Goddard, 
Esq. 

2 " Great Tom," the bell at Christchurch College, came from Oseney 
and bears the name of one of the D'Oyleys. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 9 

Marjory, upon whom the estates had devolved 
upon the death of her brother Robert D'Oyley, 
Baron of Hooknorton, married Henry de New- 
burgh, fifth Earl of Warwick; but was con- 
tinued, without the honors and estates, through 
Robert, eldest son of Gilbert D'Oyley, younger 
brother to the first feudal lord, to whom suc- 
ceeded John and Richard D'Oyley, the latter of 
whom held his estate of Pus Hall, or Pushill, 
from the crown by tenure of presenting yearly to 
the king a tablecloth of three shillings' price, or 
three shillings for all services. 1 

The estates of Chiselhampton, from which 
the later designation of the family was taken, 
were purchased by Thomas D'Oyley of Marlow 
and his son John, called "of Chiselhampton," 
whose son John married Ursula Cope, above 
named, and was the father of Presilla, wife of 
Edward Goddard of Englesham. 

Edward Goddard was an adherent of the Par- 
liamentary party during the civil wars, and 
member of a Parliamentary Commission for 
Wiltshire, while his elder brother, Thomas God- 
dard of Upham and Squire of Swindon, was a 
Royalist. There being thus members of the 
family on the opposing sides, each aided the other 
in obtaining relief from the fines and other dis- 

1 Hence, perhaps the word "doily" in common use to-day. 



10 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

abilities inflicted by the party in power. Edward 
of Englesham was at one time wealthy, but lost 
much of his property during the civil wars. He 
died at Lower Upham in 1647, intestate, and let- 
ters of administration were granted to his oldest 
son John; his wife, Presilla, was buried at Box, 
County Wilts, June 15, 1681, aged eighty-eight. 

William Goddard, seventh son of the pre- 
ceding, baptized at Englesham February 28, 
1627, married Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin 
and Elizabeth Miles, was a citizen of London, 
and a member of the "Worshipful Company 
of Grocers," one of the guilds of the city. He 
acquired property, but this becoming much 
impaired "by losses at sea and too expensive 
living," he came to America in the year 1665, 
storing his furniture and merchandise in London 
to await his return. 1 

The voyage was nominally undertaken for the 
purpose of collecting a debt. 2 His wife's mother, 
now the widow of Robert Foote of Crosby 
Square, London, had lent to a brother, then 
living in New England, the sum of one hundred 
pounds, to secure the payment of which he had 

1 It was at this time unlawful for a person to take more than five 
pounds out of the kingdom. 

2 It is quite possible, however, that this removal may have been in 
part due to disagreements with the royal government, or even to escape 
persecution, if, as is likely, he inherited the political principles and affili- 
ations of his father. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 11 

mortgaged to her his house and land. The debt 
being unpaid at his death, Mrs. Foote assigned 
it to her son-in-law, William Goddard, who, on 
arriving here, took possession of the mortgaged 
property. The plague soon after breaking out in 
London, and the great fire of 1666 having de- 
stroyed his property left in storage, he decided 
to remain in New England and to send for his 
wife and children. Of his six children born in 
London, three died young; the other three, to 
wit, William, Joseph and Robert, accompanied 
their mother to America in 1666, and the family 
thereupon settled upon a small but good farm in 
Watertown, Massachusetts, where William God- 
dard was admitted a freeman, December 1677, 
and became a farmer and teacher of the town 
school. 1 Here five other children were subse- 
quently born, of whom two died in infancy. 

Of these the eldest, Benjamin, born in 1668, 
married Martha Palfrey and had five children, 
and died October 24, 1748. 

Josiah, born about 1672, settled on the original 
farm in Watertown and died November 14, 1720. 
He was married and had at least one child, a son. 

1 March 27, 1680. "These are to certify that Mr. William Goddard of 
Watertowne, whome the said towne by covenanting engaged to teach such 
children as should be sent to him to learn the rules of the Latin tongue, 
hath those accomplishments which render him capable to discharge the 
trust (in that respect) committed to him. (Signed) John Sherman, Pastor." 



12 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

The youngest, Edward, born March 25, 1675, 
married in 1696-97 Susannah Stone, by whom 
he had nine children, and settled in Framing- 
ham in 1714. Being partly helped by a legacy 
from the estate of his uncle, Robert Foote, 1 and 
having sold to advantage some rights which he 
had purchased in "Hains' Farm," so called, he 
became a citizen of substance and prominence in 
town affairs, being successively Selectman, Town 
Clerk, Representative in the General Court, and 
a member of "His Majestie's Council" under 
Governor Belcher. He was also lieutenant and 
captain of a troop. He died February 9, 1754, 
leaving some interesting biographical notes, from 
which the foregoing account is in part taken. 2 

William Goddard, the father, died October 6, 
1691. His wife, Elizabeth, died February 8, 
1697/8 o. s. 

It is from the second son, Joseph, born in 
London about the year 1655, that the Brookline 

1 Son of Elizabeth Miles by her second husband, Robert Foote. Will 
dated 6 Apr. 1714. "Item I give devise and bequeath unto ye sons of my 
sister Elizabeth Goddard, in New England, deceased, the sum of £2000 
equally to be divided amongst such of them as shall be living at the time 
of my decease." 

2 " It is curious to remark that the three sons born in England, from 
whose line direct proceed the present Brookline family, had light com- 
plexions and red hair, and those born in Watertown dark complexions 
and black hair. The latter for distinction were called ' the Indian 
boys.' Every second generation descending from the former, to this 
period, has had some red hair in the family." Genealogy of the De- 
scendants of Edward Goddard, by William Austin Goddard. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 13 

Goddards descend. He married in Watertown, 
March 25, 1680, Deborah, daughter of Nathan- 
iel Treadway, and settled in Brookline upon the 
estate on Goddard Avenue still in the possession 
of his descendants. 1 

The title to the property is an interesting one. 
In Suffolk County Deeds, under date of March 
28, 1702, Dorman Marean is named as owner 
of land in "Muddy River." October 29, 1711, 
the selectmen of Boston deeded to William 
Marean (son of the preceding) and others, one 
hundred and twenty (120) acres of "Town 
Land in Brooklyn." This was afterwards divided 
by lot, and William Marean drew "Lott Two" 
hereinafter referred to. March 9th, 1712, and 
March 22d, 1713, William Marean and his 
two sisters, Mary Stanner and Elizabeth Vivian, 
"being the three only children and heirs of Dor- 
man Marean, late of Brookline, alias 'Muddy 
River,'" conveyed to Joseph Goddard, "Cord- 
wainer," "that one messuage tenement or dwell- 

1 He had also a grant of land in Deerfield Mass., about the year 1687-88. 
The Rev. John Eliot's record of " Such as adjoyned themselves unto 
the fellowship of this Church of Christ at Roxborough" in the year 1700 
contains the names of "Joseph Goddard and his wife Deborah." There 
was no meeting-house in "Muddy River" (Brookline) until 1715, the in- 
habitants attending the First Church in Roxbury, where one-fifth of the 
"sittings" were assigned to their use. March 21, 1714/5, Joseph God- 
dard was appointed a "Leather Sealer," and May 16, 1715, was one of a 
Committee of Five "on the work of the meeting-house in order to the 
finishing of it." March 18, 1716/7 he was chosen Town Treasurer. 



14 NATHANIEL GODDAM) 

ing house, with the orchard, meadow and arra- 
ble (sic) ground fifty (50) acres in Brookline on 
land of Josiah Winchester, Thomas Woodward 
and Joshua and Benjamin Child, and the Rox- 
bury line, which said orchard, etc., with part of 
the buildings thereon standing and being, that is, 
the whole westerly end or half part of the present 
dwelling house, were formerly the inheritance of 
their father, Dorman Marean, deceased." Also a 
piece of five acres adjoining the above and Bow- 
en's farm and land of Child; also four acres on 
Caleb Sanders, Joseph White, John Douce, and 
common land of Brookline, being "Lott Two" 
above referred to ; and twelve acres on Winchester, 
White and Woodward. From Joseph Goddard 
the estate passed by deed and will to his son John, 
who in the meantime had moved to Worcester, 
and who, March 1, 1753, deeded to his son John, 
known in this sketch as "the Wagon-Master," 
" one half part of all my housing and land in Brook- 
line, being three parcels, to wit, sixty acres with 
dwellinghouse and barn and two lots of five and 
seven acres respectively, in all seventy-two acres, 
bounding on Winchester, Woodward and Child." 
John Goddard appears to have added to the 
estate by purchases at sundry times from 1754 
to 1783, aggregating some thirty-four acres, 
from Joshua and Isaac Child and Thomas 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 15 

White. There would thus seem to have ulti- 
mately vested in John Goddard, "the Wagon- 
Master," seventy acres of homestead and land 
adjoining, and this estimate is confirmed by 
subsequent conveyances of record. April 1, 
1797, John Goddard conveyed to his son, Joseph 
Goddard, " all that farm whereon the said Joseph 
now lives, containing about seventy acres," and 
May 12, 1831 Joseph Goddard conveyed to his 
son, 1 Abijah Warren Goddard, the same pro- 
perty, "except a piece of about four acres with the 
' cottage ' in which grantor now lives and all other 
buildings thereon standing as now enclosed by a 
wall, containing about sixty-six acres ; also except- 
ing and reserving the use and improvement of the 
piece or parcel of land called the ' Vineyard ' to 
grantor during life, and the right of cutting wood 
and brush and taking mud or peat for grantor's 
own profit and advantage, provided sufficient 
wood is left for supplying the fire of my son, the 
said Abijah, his heirs and assigns." This property 
is now occupied by Mrs. W T atson, a daughter of 
Abijah Warren Goddard. 2 The original acreage 
has been diminished by conveyances of later date, 
considerable areas now forming portions of ad- 

1 As was the custom of those days, when the eldest son married, the 
parents moved out of the old house and built another on the estate, leaving 
the homestead to the son. 

2 The original deeds of title are in the possession of Mrs. Watson. 



16 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

joining estates, but enough has been kept to pre- 
vent encroachment upon the "homestead" and 
its immediate surroundings. Joseph Goddard 
died July 25, 1728, in the seventy-third year of 
his age, and is buried in the family vault in the 
old town burying-ground on Walnut Street in 
Brookline. 

Of the marriage of Joseph and Deborah 
Goddard were born four sons, Joseph, James, 
Robert, and John, and two daughters, Elizabeth 
and Deborah. In his will, dated December 25, 
1724, and proved August 19, 1728, Joseph 
Goddard names three sons, James, Robert and 
John, Joseph having meanwhile died, and two 
daughters, Elizabeth Adams and Deborah Child, 
and makes the following devise: "Whereas all 
my other sons have had trades and my son John 
has hitherto continued with me and been a help 
to me in my advanced age, that therefore my 
said son, John Goddard, shall have and enjoy 
all and singular my housing, lands, marsh and 
meadow, in Brookline, etc., with all and singular 
the appurtenances, etc., which I appraise at 
five hundred pounds, bills of credit on this Pro- 
vince," he being required to pay to the other chil- 
dren of the testator the balance of five hundred 
pounds after payment of debts, legacies, etc. 

John Goddard, the fourth son of the preceding 



NATHANIEL GODDARD . 17 

and devisee of the homestead, named in his 
father's will, was born in Brookline in 1699, and 
was twice married, first, in 1725, to Lucy, daugh- 
ter of John and Sarah Seaver, who died leav- 
ing no children, and second, April 4, 1729, to 
Hannah (Jennison), widow of Jonathan Stone, 
by whom he had three sons and one daughter, 
John, Samuel, Hannah and Joseph. He settled 
on the patrimonial estate devised to him by his 
father, living there until 1745, when he removed 
to Worcester, where he died June 26, 1785, 
aged eighty-six. 1 His wife, Hannah, died in 
Worcester December 10, 1777, aged seventy- 
five. 2 

John Goddard "the Wagon-Master," eldest 
son of the preceding, was born May 28, 1730, 
and married, in 1753, Sarah Brewer, by whom he 
had one daughter, Sarah, born April 26, 1754, 
died June 26, 1780. His wife died January 26, 
1755. He married for a second wife Hannah 
Seaver, born July 16th, o. s. 1735, by whom he 
had twelve sons and three daughters, as follows : 
John, Samuel, Hannah, Joseph, Benjamin, 

1 John Goddard was a constable of Brookline, appointed March 1, 
1731/32. By a vote of the town he was authorized " to draw out of the 
Treasury the sum of <£9 to purchis a more conveanant way to meeting 
and other conveanances." 

2 It is said that John Goddard wanted to marry Hannah Jennison 
first, but she declined, saying that she "wanted to have a little longer 
fling." 



18 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Lucy, Benjamin 2d, Nathaniel, Jonathan, 
Jonathan 2d, Abijah, Abijah 2d, Warren, 
Lucy 2d, William. Of these fifteen children, 
own brothers and sisters, ten lived to maturity, 
three, Benjamin 1st, Jonathan 1st and Abijah 1st 
died in infancy, and the two Lucys in childhood. 
Much of John Goddard's private life, as a New 
England farmer, will be learned from the nar- 
rative of his son Nathaniel, and it will be suffi- 
cient here to mention certain of his appointments 
to public service, as they appear of contempo- 
raneous record, showing his active participation 
in the stirring events of the time, and his share 
in the civic and military duties required of the 
citizen by his state and town. 

From 1763 to 1770 John Goddard held suc- 
cessively the offices of Constable, Surveyor of 
Highways, Selectman and Assessor, and Col- 
lector of the Town of Brookline; and in 1775 
and for several years succeeding he was regu- 
larly chosen to be moderator of the annual town 
meeting. 

December 15, 1767, "at a Meeting of the 
Freeholders and other inhabitants of the Town 
of Brooklyn Legally assembled at the Meeting- 
house," it was voted that "The Town will take 
all prudent and Legal Measures to promote In- 
dustry, Occonimy and Manufactures in this 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 19 

Province and in any of the British American 
Colonies and will likewise take all Legal Mea- 
sures to Discourage the Use of European Super- 
fluities;" and, second, "To choose five persons 
to wit: [to] be a Committee to prepare a form 
for Subscription against Receiving of those 
European Superfluities 1 and to make Report at 
the adjournment of this meeting." (Adjourned 
to December 29 at 2 p. m.) 

At the trial of the British soldiers for firing on 
the townspeople in State Street on the 5th of 
March, 1770, John Goddard was a witness 
(No. 39), and testified that "as he was passing 
the street on Saturday last, being the 3rd inst., 
he was stopped near the barracks in Water 
Street and sold to the barracks people some 
potatoes about five o'clock in the afternoon; and 
found by their discourse some of the soldiers 
had returned from a fray near the rope-walk, and 
a number of soldiers came out of the barracks, 2 
he supposed about twenty, with clubs, seemingly 
much enraged, and one in a profane manner 
swore he would be revenged on them if he fired 
the town." 3 

1 Paint, paper, glass and tea, on which a duty had been laid by Parlia- 
ment for importation into the colonies. 

2 The Twenty-ninth Regiment was quartered in Water and Atkinson 
streets. 

3 From History of the Boston Massacre, by Frederick Kidder. 



20 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

December 11, 1772, John Goddard was one 
of a committee of seven "to take under Con- 
sideration the Violations and Infringements of 
the Rights of the Colonists and of this Pro- 
vince in particular." This was "to be also a 
Standing Committee of communication and cor- 
respondence with the Town of Boston and any 
other Towns on the subject of our Present 
Difficulties, and to instruct their Representa- 
tive Respecting the Violation of the Rights of 
this Province." 

December 28, 1772, when Brookline issued 
nV/Bill of Rights" (Appendix A), John God- 
dard was again on a Committee of Correspond- 
ence. 

September 1, 1774, he was one of a commit- 
tee of five "to examine into the state of said 
Town as to their Military preparations for 
War in case of a sudden attack from our Ene- 
mies." 

September 27, 1774, John Goddard was one 
of three persons to draw up Instructions to 
their representative "that he do firmly adhere 
to the Charter of the Province . . . and in his 
Representative Capacity do nothing that can 
be construed in the least as an acknowledg- 
ment of the validity of the late oppressive Acts 
of Parliament, etc.," and was chosen one of 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 21 

two Delegates to attend the Provincial Con- 
gress at Concord in the following October, "to 
meet the Delegates from the other Towns in 
the Province and in behalf of this Town to 
act and unite with them in all such measures 
as shall appear to you to have a tendency to 
promote the welfare of this Province to recover 
and secure the Just Rights and Liberties of 
America." 

On the seventh day of October in the same 
year, at a Provincial Congress of Deputies of the 
several towns and districts in the Province of the 
Massachusetts Bay in New England, convened 
at Salem, John Goddard was a deputy from the 
town of Brookline. 

November 2, 1774, at a meeting of the Com- 
mittee of Safety at the house of Captain Sted- 
man in Cambridge, it was voted unanimously 
"that Mr. John Goddard of Brookline be Wag- 
gon-master for the army and that Captain 
White inform him of his choice by the Pro- 
vince." * 

January 1, 1775, he was one of a committee of 
three to instruct the Brookline delegate to the 
Continental Congress. 

May 15, 1775, the following certificate was 
issued from Headquarters: "This is to certify 

1 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, p. 512. 



22 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

that Mr. John Goddard has been appointed by 
the joint Committees of Safety and Supplies to 
this Colony, to convey such articles of stores 
from one part of this Colony to another as the 
public exigency may require, under the direction 
of the Commissary General and the ordnance 
store keeper, and that such other waggoners or 
drivers are to be employed as he shall recom- 
mend for that purpose." 

In the Orderly Book of Abijah Wyman, who 
commanded a company in Colonel William 
Prescott's Regiment, under date of August 9, 
1775, appears the following: "Mr. John Godard 
is apinted By the Comander yn Cheaf wagon 
master genl to the army of the twelve united 
Collinies and is to Be obayed as such." 

May 20, 1776, John Goddard was chosen a 
Representative from Brookline, and was advised 
by the meeting "that if the Honorable Congress 
should for the Safety of the American Colonies 
Declare them Independent of the kingdom of 
Great Briton, then we said Inhabitants will 
solemnly engage with our Lives and fortunes to 
support them in the measure." 

Following are extracts from the Massachu- 
setts Archives, vol. 174, p. 329, and vol. 220, 
p. 9. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 23 

To the Hon 3 ? 5 the Council of the State of 

the Massachusetts Bay. 

The Subscriber humbly sheweth that Caleb 
Davis Esq purchasing Commissary of this State 
has procured a large Quantity of Stores for the 
use of the Troops raised by s* State and that he 
has rec* Intelligence from one of the Commis- 
saries that he is out of stores & that the Army is 
in great Want of them, upon receiving this Ac- 
count of him I immediately proceeded to pro- 
cure Teams to forward them to the Army & 
have rode five days to about fifteen or eighteen 
Towns where I tho't it most probable I could 
raise them, & have not been able to get a certain 
promise of any though I went so far as to offer 
nine Shillings p? Mile, the Teams which have 
been constantly employed in carting being all 
engaged in removing private property, and the 
Farmers could not spare theirs till after haying 
& harvest which will not be in less than five or 
six Weeks; and I believe it will be impossible 
for me to engage them in less time unless your 
Honors can point out to me some more effectual 
Method than what has yet been taken: And as 
there is no prospect of my answering the Ex- 
pectation of the Honourable Court, Spending 
time & Money without performing the business 
will greatly injure the publick & the Army as 



24 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

well as my own private Interest, would therefore 
humbly request of your Honors to dismiss me 
from the Service of Conductor, on my properly 
settling past Accounts. 

As in duty bound shall ever pray — 

John Goddard 

Brookline July 21 s . 4 1778 

To the Honorable the General Court of 
the State of the Massachusetts Bay. 
I take this opportunity to acquaint the hon- 
orable Court that in Obedience to their Resolve 
of the 27 th - of April last & an additional one of the 
hon b ! e Council of the 20^ of July directing me, (if 
in want of Teams for the transportation of State 
Stores to the Army) to apply to Justices of the 
Peace & Select Men therefor who by s* Resolve 
were directd, on my Application to procure s* 
Teams by Impress, I applied to the Justices of 
the Peace & Select Men of several Towns who 
did not carry s* Resolve so fully into execution as 
to procure the Teams ; tho' they went so far as to 
impress them yet the Persons impressed, in open 
defiance of the Authority of the hon b ! e Court ab- 
solutely refused to go on with s* Stores let the 
Consequences be what they would, to the great 
damage of the publick. 

Gentlemen your obed* h b ! e Serv* 

John Goddard 

Oct? 1!* 1778 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 25 

In the House of Representatives Sept. 30^ 1778 

Read & thereupon Ordered That M? Nye & 

Majf Goodman with such as y e Hon Board shall 

join be a Committee to consider the same, & 

report — 

Sent up for Concurrence 

John Pickering Spkf 

In Council Sep. 30. 1778 

Read & Concurred and Tim? Edwards Esq is 

J oined Jn? Avert D y Secy. 

In Volume 65 of the "Revolutionary Rolls," 
being the Massachusetts Muster and Pay Rolls, 
appears the following: — 

STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 

Council Chamber, May 10, 1779. 

You are hereby directed to pay out of the 
public treasury of this State to Mr. John God- 
dard, late Conductor of Stores to the Army, the 
sum of seven hundred and eighty-three pounds 
thirteen shillings and three pence in full of his 
Bailee settled by the committee appointed to 
audit accounts — for which this shall be your 
sufficient warrant. 

By Advice of Council. 

John Avery, Secretary. 

Hon. Henry Gardner, Treasurer. 
£783.. 13.. 3. 



26 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

"At a Convention begun and held at Concord, 
in the County of Middlesex, in and for the 
State of Massachusetts Bay, on the 14^ day of 
July, 1779, 'for the purpose of carrying into 
effect the several interesting and important 
measures recommended by Congress to the 
Inhabitants of the United States in their late 
wise, seasonable and animating address,' there 
being by vote one delegate from each town, 
Captain John Goddard was such delegate from 
the town of Brookline." 

Proceedings of the Convention 

In the "Expense Book" of Captain John 
Goddard are found the following items: 

March 4-28, 1775. Engaging teams and transporting stores, 
time, etc. Charged to Committee for sup- 
plies. 

April 16, 1775. Carted 2 ox-cart loads and 2 horse-cart 

loads of canteens to Concord, and en- 
trenching tools Brookline to Worcester. 

April 22, 1775. To supping and breakfasting 12 men 

and 4 oxen. 

April 24, 1775. Entertaining teames and men that brought 

canteens, and carters with ordinance 
stores. 

May 22, 1775. Began to be constant in service of the 

Province. Myself and Horse. 

June 27, 1775. One day's work of 2 hands and teams 

Drawing tree to the brestwork. 

July 19, 1775. To cart and tent poles and Baggage for 

Colonel Danielson's Rigement . . 14 . . 
Also gabeons. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 27 

Occasional entries like the following show that 
the teamsters were provided for on the road: 
"one-half bowl toddy and one-half mug flip." 

Continuing to be "constant in service" of the 
State as of the Province, from 1785 to 1792 John 
Goddard was a Representative in the state legis- 
lature from the town of Brookline. 

Of the children of John and Hannah Goddard, 
the eldest, John, born November 12, 1756, was 
graduated at Harvard College in 1777, and 
studied medicine, but, owing to feeble health, 
never practised as a physician. He settled as 
an apothecary in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
where he continued to live during the remainder 
of his life, serving as Representative and Senator 
in the legislature, and declining nominations 
as United States Senator and Governor. He was 
four times married; first, to Susanna, daughter 
of John Heath of Brookline ; second, to Jane, 
daughter of John Boyd of Portsmouth ; third to 
Mary, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Langdon 
of Portsmouth, president of Harvard College 
from 1774 to 1780; » and fourth, to Ann White. 
By the first three he became the father of four- 
teen children. He died December 18, 1829, aged 
seventy-three years. 

1 The house in which he lived with his third wife, Mary Langdon, is 
still standing in Pleasant Street, Portsmouth, and is occupied by his 
granddaughter, Mrs. Thomas A. Harris. 



28 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Samuel, the second son, born February 28, 
1758, married Joanna Brewer. By her he had 
three children, and died August 25, 1786. 

Hannah, the eldest daughter, born Octo- 
ber 13, 1759, died unmarried September 16, 
1786. 

Joseph, born April 15, 1761, lived on the old 
family estate in Brookline, and married, first, 
Mary, daughter of Samuel and Sybil Aspinwall, 
by whom he had eleven children; and second, 
Susanna Snelling. This latter marriage is thus 
humorously alluded to by his brother Nathaniel, 
in a letter dated February 17, 1830 : " My brother 
Joseph is to be married on Thursday evening 
next to a widow Snelling, about 45 years old. . . . 
She has lived a widow nearly opposite M* Gray's 
wharf at the North end of this town, has two 
sons apprentices, one with My Withington who 
married Joseph's daughter Lucy; there, I pre- 
sume, he first got acquainted. It may be an- 
nounced in the public papers thus 'Married, 
Mr. Joseph Goddard of Brookline aged 70 to 
Mrs. Snelling of Boston aged 45 years; may this 
youthful couple be happy in wedlock another 
century.'" 1 

1 Many quaint stories and sayings of "Uncle Joe" were current 
among the older generations of the family. He predicted his own 
death at the age of eighty-six, saying that "his father and grand- 
father had died at that age and it would not be respectful in him 



HOME OF BENJAMIN GODDARD, BROOKLINE, MASS. 
From, a photograph by L. Shannon Davis, Esq. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 29 

Benjamin, born January 20, 1763, died 
June 28, 1764. 

Lucy, born February 15, 1764, died Febru- 
ary 11, 1777. 

Benjamin, the next older brother of our 
grandfather, was born in Brookline, March 20, 
1766, and married, first, December 15, 1793, 
Louisa, daughter of Samuel May, who was born 
December 14, 1773, and died January 18, 
1832; and second, January 15, 1835, Catharine, 
daughter of Josiah Brown. There was no issue 
of either marriage. In 1792 he bought of John 
May a piece of land on the easterly side of 
Orange, now Washington Street, at the South 
End of Boston, and extending to low water 
mark; and in 1798, of Lemuel Cravath and 
Amos Whitney, a second piece adjoining the 
former. 1 Here he lived until his removal to 
Brookline, his house being numbered 125 on 
Orange Street. Of this property he subsequently 
sold the flats to the South Cove Corporation, 
and the remainder to the Boston Female Asylum. 
The early partnership between the brothers 
in the business at Passamaquoddy (see " Narra- 
tive") had been dissolved on Nathaniel God- 
dard's return to Boston in 1796, and Benjamin, 

to live longer." He died December 10, 1846, safely within the limit 
of his prophecy. 

1 Original deeds preserved. 



30 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

being no longer in active business, in 1813 at the 
age of forty-six bought of his father, John God- 
dard, his "farm in Brookline on the Worcester 
Turnpike," where he built the house which was 
to be his home during the remaining years of 
his life. It is said that the purchase money was 
the result of a single successful trading voyage 
(the last) of the brothers' vessels. He thereafter 
devoted himself to the care of his garden and 
farm of some thirty acres, the latter during most 
of these years being leased to George W. Stearns, 
who had married his niece Hannah, eldest 
daughter of his brother Joseph. George Stearns 
and his wife lived in the old house on the Ben- 
jamin Goddard estate, known as the "Gardner 
house," which had been occupied during the 
latter years of his life by John Goddard, the 
Wagon Master, and where he and his wife both 
died. 1 

From time to time, after removing to Brook- 
line, Benjamin supplied his brother's ships with 
produce from his farm, but had no share in the 
voyages or ventures. Appendant to the home- 
stead estate were a piece of marsh land on the 

1 This entire property Benjamin Goddard devised by will to his 
nephews and nieces, children of his brother Nathaniel, and it is now 
controlled and developed by the Goddard Land Company, the stock- 
holders in which are his collateral descendants. The mansion house is 
still standing at a short distance from its original site, but is no longer in 
the possession of the family. 



OLD GARDNER HOUSE 

On the estate of Benjamin Goddard 
From a photograph by L. Shannon Davis, Esq. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 31 

Mill Dam, now Beacon Street, at the corner of 
St. Mary's Street, where salt hay was cut for 
the stock, and two parcels of wood land on 
Hammond Street, Newton, for a supply of wood 
for the fireplaces and for the big "Rumford 
Roaster," which nearly filled one side of the 
kitchen. 1 

Benjamin Goddard died in Brookline, Octo- 
ber 26, 1861, his wife Catharine surviving him. 

Jonathan, born October 26, 1768, died No- 
vember 13, 1768. 

Jonathan second, mentioned in the "Narra- 
tive," was born November 22, 1769. He was 
married October 27, 1803, to Charlotte Martin, 
by whom he had two children, and died in 
Portsmouth, of consumption, March 4, 1807, 
" a man of distinction and delicacy of sensibility, 
with qualities of an industrious, methodical, yet 
accomplished merchant and member of society." 
(W. Austin Goddard's Genealogy.) 

Abijah, born August 25, 1771, died April 3, 
1772. 

Abijah second, born April 17, 1774, and died 
of consumption October 29, 1794. 

1 This may be described as a collection of ovens, large and small, in a 
huge brick enclosure, designed to illustrate the principle of slow cooking, 
and was highly esteemed by the housekeepers of those days. It was the 
invention of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. When the house was 
repaired in 1885, it was found necessary to remove this. 



32 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Warren, born March 25, 1776, and died of 
consumption December 25, 1797. 

Lucy, born August 30, 1778, died Decem- 
ber 8, 1792. 

William, born January 12, 1781, became a 
merchant in Boston; married, first, Mary 
Storer, and second, Mary, daughter of Dr. 
Thacher Goddard, and died July 26, 1835. 

John Goddard, the father, died April 13, 1816; 
his wife Hannah died May 31, 1821. x 

The following extracts from letters 2 written at 
odd intervals during the years 1804 to 1825, 
being the only portions of such correspondence 
now accessible, show something of the affection- 
ate relations existing in after life between the 
brothers and the members of their several fam- 
ilies. They are given in chronological order as 
dated. 

Boston, 29th January, 1804. 

Dear Brother: — Your favours of 26th and 
27th are before me — the tidings contained have 
filled us with alarm and anxiety; having been 

1 In the Diary of Susanna Heath occur the following entries : — 
"Apr. 13, 1816. Old M r . Goddard died this morning at six o'clock." 
" Sunday, 21 Bt . M r . Peirce gave us this afternoon the character of a 

pious man. He said he was forbidden by M r . Goddard to mention him 

in the pulpit in particular." 

Miss Rebecca Boylston writes to her uncle, Edward Boylston, under 

date of March 5, 1810. " M r . & M rs . Goddard are still living monuments 

of piety and goodness." 

Originals in the possession of Mrs. Thomas A. Harris. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 33 

witnesses of the beginning, progress and end of 
a similar complaint which Brother Jonathan is 
visited with, in the case of Brother Warren, we 
are almost ready to despair. I am afraid we 
must part with this valuable brother; w T hat can 
I do, what can I say, if anything that will have 
the least tendency to afford comfort or relief 
command me. I am afraid his valuable proper- 
ties and the tender affections of his friends will 
not avail. I have communicated the contents of 
your first letter to our father who with Captain 
Martin dined with me yesterday; they con- 
ducted with a great share of steadiness. Our 
father will be cautious in communicating it to our 
mother; our friends here are all apprised of it, 
and all feel the tender emotions that naturally 
arise from the greatest fear they can have to part 
with a dear brother and friend. Brother Warren 
was attacked exactly in the same way, pro- 
duced no doubt by general debility, and I have 
always been inclined to think that his debility 
was hastened by the physicians taking from him 
too much blood. I need not say anything on this 
subject, believing he w T ill have the best medical 
skill ; extreme care on his part will be necessary, 
I hope his mind will be free from business or 
any anxiety. This event must bring upon you 
great care and anxiety, adding to the necessary 



34 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

attention you must pay towards your great 
family, the whole of the care of the business, 
accompanied with the anxiety of mind and fa- 
tigue of body so unable to bear it. I am afraid 
without extreme caution for yourself it may 
prove too much for you to grapple with ; I hope 
however, your ability will prove proportionate to 
the requirements. I thank you for your kind 
wishes for the protection of my property from 
the hands of ruffian speculators — this subject, 
however, although I considered of some mag- 
nitude a few days ago, has now dwindled to 
nothing; I don't doubt I shall have a competency 
to carry me through life, what can I want more ? 
I do not wish to add to your cares, but must beg 
of you a line as often as changes take place. 
Your affectionate Brother 

Benjamin Goddard 

Boston, February 3, 1805. 

Dear Brother: — The sorrowful tidings con- 
tained in your letters of 28th and 29th ultimo 
were immediately communicated to your chil- 
dren and other friends. We most sincerely 
sympathize with you on this afflicting occasion, 
having so recently been acquainted with your 
dear daughter, 1 and seeing her most of the time 

1 Jane Goddard, born June 22, 1789, died January 29, 1805. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 35 

destitute of a share of health to enjoy the bless- 
ings of life which those around her so generally 
partook excited our most tender feelings and 
pity towards her, and a particular interest in her 
favour. We were in hopes that her life would have 
been protracted and that her health would have 
been restored, and that she might have shared 
with her friends the enjoyments of this life a small 
part of which has fallen to her lot. When we 
consider how small the balance is in favour of 
life to those who enjoy good health, when we 
reflect upon the extreme delicacy of your daugh- 
ter's constitution, upon the still greater delicacy 
of her feelings, the peculiar sensibility of her 
heart and consequent liability to suffering, 
should we not attempt at least to suppress our 
selfish sorrows in the full conviction that the 
change is infinitely to her advantage? Little 
can be done by friends towards alleviating the 
affliction of a parent in the loss of a child; you 
have I trust resources in your own mind far 
better than anything I have in my power to 
furnish. You will however accept assurances 
of our tenderest sympathy in your sufferings 
and present our most affectionate regards to our 
sister and family. 

Your affectionate Brother 

Benjamin Goddard. 



36 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Brother Nathaniel has another daughter added 
to his family; tl^e mother and child are very 
well. 1 

Boston, 12 July, 1808. 

My Dear Harriot: — It was with the deep- 
est concern and regret that we received the 
afflictive intelligence of the death of your mother, 2 
and most feelingly do we sympathize with her 
bereaved family. The affection I feel for you, 
my dear girls, and the exalted opinion I have 
ever entertained of your departed parent, will 
I trust be an apology for my writing you at this 
time. When such a woman as your mother is 
taken away great indeed is the loss for her 
family; for myself I feel it such, but for you, my 
dear girls, I feel it peculiarly great; you are at 
a very important period in your lives deprived 
of a friend and instructor who was fully adequate 
to the important duty of forming your young 
minds, and impressing upon them by her affec- 
tionate precepts the importance of those virtues 
she has taught you by her example, a mother 
who has with fond affection and anxious solici- 
tude watched over and guarded your infant years ; 
but as the great Ruler of events has seen fit to 
take her from us we must submit, and it is a 

1 Henrietta May Goddard, born January 25, 1805. 

2 Mary (Langdon) Goddard, died June 14, 1808. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 37 

duty we owe to ourselves and our friends to 
endeavor to bear with calmness and resignation 
the losses and trials we are called to endure; 
yours, I think, is of the most distressing kind. I 
have omitted writing thus long fearing I should 
add to the poignant distress you must have felt, 
but I trust by this time you have found con- 
solation and comfort from that never-failing 
Source who alone is able to comfort the afflicted, 
and is not only able but ready to hear and answer 
those who call upon Him. For your father I feel 
sensibly this dispensation of Providence; it is 
not a new thing for him to be afflicted, but I 
think he could never more than at the present 
time feel the want of such a friend as he has 
lost. Allow me, my young friend, to remind you 
that much is in your power respecting the com- 
fort and happiness of your parent, but J t is not 
necessary, your feeling mind will readily suggest 
to you a variety of ways by which you can add 
to his comfort and tranquillity. How often do I 
wish that I could be with you occasionally; it 
would give me much satisfaction. Your grand- 
parents and other friends are as well as usual, 
your Aunt Louisa and I often speak of your 
present situation and wish much to see you all. 
Will your sisters leave home this summer? I 
think it will be solitary for you to have them all 



38 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

go to Portland ; you must sensibly feel the sepa- 
ration from them. It will give us much pleasure 
to see any or all of you in Boston; perhaps your 
father will consent to spare one of you at a time 
and let you become more acquainted with your 
Boston friends. Lucy Maria and Eliza have never 
been to make us a visit; perhaps it would be an 
advantage to their health at this time, and would 
be a great gratification to us. We anticipate a 
visit from your Aunt Charlotte; perhaps some 
of you will accompany her. Will you be so good 
as to tell your Aunt that I am not going from 
home and shall daily hope to see her in Boston; 
please to remember me to your father and make 
the request known to him if it will be agreeable 
to any of you to leave home. I hope your Aunt 
Eliza Langdon is with you still; I have so often 
heard you speak of her that I feel in some mea- 
sure acquainted with her and should be gratified 
to be more so. To your brothers Henry and 
Samuel remember me affectionately and remind 
your younger brothers and sisters that they have 
such a friend as theirs and your 
Affectionate Aunt 

LUCRETIA GODDARD. 1 



1 Harriot Goddard, to whom this letter was written, died September 23, 
1814, of typhus fever, presumably at Nathaniel Goddard's house in 
Boston, the record of deaths in the office of the City Registrar showing 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 39 

Both Nathaniel and Benjamin Goddard had 
actively interested themselves on behalf of their 
brother John's children. The two eldest of these, 
John and Henry, were apprenticed to merchants 
in Boston (to Mr. Sewall and Mr. Shimmin 
respectively), about the year 1802, and Langdon, 
the youngest, lived for some time (1816) with his 
Uncle Benjamin in Brookline. Letters to his 
brother show the careful oversight exercised by 
the uncle in caring for their interests and edu- 
cation. Samuel, the third son, on leaving Boston 
in 1813 to engage in business abroad, was fur- 
nished by his Uncle Nathaniel with five thou- 
sand pounds to invest on joint account in estab- 
lishing an American trade with England. 

March 17, 1813, Benjamin Goddard writes 
to his brother John : " It is yet uncertain in what 
manner he (Samuel) can get goods to America; 
he must of course be governed by passing events, 
for there is nothing of a public nature that can 
be long depended on in these times. If inter- 
course should be opened by any wise, or foolish, 
arrangement of government, then he will be in 
England (if best) to ship early and without re- 
straint; if no arrangement should take place he 
will do the best he can indirectly." 

that she was buried in his tomb in the Central Burying Ground on Boston 
Common. 



40 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

September 17, 1818, he writes to the same 
brother: "It has been so long since I have 
practiced writing letters, I hardly know how 
(even when I have an object) to begin, especially 
when it is a new one and the result very interest- 
ing and uncertain. I have been made acquainted 
for a considerable time past of the intention of a 
connection between your son Samuel and Me- 
hitable, 1 but had no expectation it would be con- 
summated for a long time, not, to be sure, till 
he was fixed in an establishment of business that 
would show a security for the measure better 
than any untried prospect, let it be ever so fair. 
Sam is ardent in his feelings and is willing to 
consider his prospects sufficient to warrant the 
measure. He is entering upon a very extensive 
plan of business with very sanguine expectations ; 
he is to have a partner in Liverpool, New York 
two, and another in New Orleans, and himself 
to reside in England at Manchester. I am 
sensible there are many advantages in having 
connections in different places, if they can be 
embraced without suffering from some of the 
hazards attending such connections; it requires 
so many qualities to form a complete (in fact, 

1 Mehitable Dawes, daughter of William Dawes, Junior, who made 
the "midnight ride" of April 18, 1775, taking the route over Boston 
Neck and through Roxbury, while Paul Revere rode through Mid- 
dlesex. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 41 

there is no such thing) man of business, that I 
conceive it a very difficult thing to select and 
form a connection (of four parts) of men, that 
there will not be a considerable hazard in some 
way or other; in fact the more numerous the 
concern the greater the risk, especially when 
failure of any one part may destroy the whole 
machine. I gave him my opinion early that he 
had better give the experiment a trial before he 
should be married, and have seen no reasons 
yet sufficient to alter it; I have felt very much 
interested for them both, but unwilling to press 
my opposition too hardly lest it should place too 
much responsibility upon me should I have pre- 
vailed, and if otherways it might give them 
unpleasant reflections afterwards; so I have 
never thought best to oppose any further than 
seriously to give an opinion against the present 
time ; but I found his feelings very much engaged, 
and his wishes very ardent to accomplish the 
object, and as the measure is agreed on by the 
parties I shall now endeavor that they leave us 
with as pleasant feelings as possible. They intend 
to be married on Tuesday or Wednesday, the 
29th or 30th inst., and to depart for New York 
the same day, there to embark for England. As 
the time is not far from that on which it was your 
intention to be with us, I hope no accident will 



42 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

happen to prevent your being here at that time, 
and if it can be made convenient, any and all 
your children; we shall make no parade nor 
will the company be large. Your wife and x\unt 
White are at this time with us, and are I believe 
quite as well as usual. She has read your letter 
of last week. 

Your affectionate Brother 

Benjamin Goddard. 

Brookline, May 27, 1821. 
Sunday Evening. 

Dear Brother: — I understand that Brother 
Nathaniel wrote you yesterday concerning the 
state of our mother. Of what he wrote I am 
ignorant, but it was no doubt under the impres- 
sion that she had revived in some measure, as 
that appeared her situation then; but it was of 
but short duration. Yesterday in the forenoon 
she sat in her chair and we thought was getting 
to her usual state of strength, but in the after- 
noon we could discern a gradual falling off 
which has continued to this time; at present she 
appears nearly insensible to everything, she has 
been from her first change very lethargick. She 
was first attacked with a heavy cold which pro- 
duced a cough that continued about twenty- 
four hours, but not more severe than she has 
frequently experienced. The cough has left her, 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 43 

she does not appear to suffer any, even so much 
as when she had good bodily health; we think 
the lamp of life nearly extinguished. My object 
in writing is not only to inform you of her situa- 
tion, but to give you timely notice, thinking it 
probable if you are in good health you would 
wish to be with us on the solemn occasion that 
must soon be at hand. Although it ought not to 
be our desire that her life should be protracted, 
we cannot but feel the change very sensibly — 
more so perhaps from having her our object of 
care so long; but God's will be done. Should 
you intend to come, I should think according to 
all appearances it would not be best to delay; 
the lamp of life may continue days, but we have 
no right to calculate upon it. Brother Nathaniel 
has just come in and says he promised to write 
you again if her appearance should change; 
this makes it unnecessary for him to write at this 
time. I will endeavor you shall be informed 
again to-morrow. 
In haste 

Your affectionate Brother 

B. Goddard. 

The history and genealogy (Appendix B) of 
the family being traced to the generation in 
which Nathaniel Goddard was born, his own 



44 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Narrative may here be properly introduced, as 
giving an account of his boyhood and youth up 
to the age of twenty-eight years, when he re- 
turned from Passamaquoddy to Boston, where 
he was to spend the remaining years of his life 
in the active calling of a merchant, and with 
which his interests were to be henceforth identi- 
fied. 

NARRATIVE 

Nathaniel Goddard, the seventh child of John 
and Hannah Goddard, was born on the Fifth 
day of June, 1767, in the house commonly sup- 
posed to be the original one built on the road 
now known as Goddard's Avenue in the westerly 
part of Brookline. It is, however, built upon the 
site of one which previously stood there, 1 and the 
removal of which had obliged the family to 
occupy a building upon the opposite side of a 
cart-way, perhaps fifteen feet wide, and nearly 
opposite a vacant space between the house and 
the well. This was a small one-and-a-half story 
building without a chimney. In preparation for 
the little one, a room was partitioned .off in the 
eastwardly corner of this unfinished building, 

1 To the eastward near the lilac bushes, and was approached by a 
cart-road from Warren Street. May 23, 1771, it was voted by the Town: 
" That M r . John Goddard be Discharged his proportion of Rates to the 
Highways for the future, on account of his being at Such Cost for main- 
taining his own Passways in order for his comeing at the Public Roads. 
Provided he keep his own Roads in Good Repair." 



BIRTHPLACE OF NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Goddard Avenue, Brookline 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 45 

with rough boards and battened. This bedroom 
was occupied by my parents for many years as a 
sleeping-room, the most of the time until they 
removed to the northeasterly part of the town, 
to an estate purchased of Deacon Elisha Gard- 
ner. The weather for some days had been un- 
usually and intensely warm, and from the great 
labor, care and anxiety caused by the extra 
fatigue consequent on removing from the old 
place of residence into the new house, and the 
charge of a very large family, made still larger 
by the addition of workmen and mechanics, the 
mother's health was injured and the child suf- 
fered much. Its life was thought doubtful, and 
it was for many years very feeble ; but as mothers 
are always tender of these offspring, she never 
ceased her labors to promote my good during my 
childhood and youth so far as her ability ex- 
tended. I have no doubt that I gave her more 
anxious and painful thoughts than any other of 
her children. This I imputed to her sympathy 
with me while subjected to the rough treatment 
received, perhaps unintentionally, from others 
who could make no allowance for feebleness they 
had never felt, or for inability which appeared 
in their hardy frames like indolence or ineffi- 
ciency. The youth and man never forgot the 
kindness shown to the boy, and at the age of 



46 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

eighty-five years gratitude to his mother, and 
compassion for her in the hardships that cir- 
cumstances and the state of the times compelled 
her to endure, seemed to be among the warmest 
and deepest feelings of his heart. That he ever 
endeavored to lessen those hardships and give 
what assistance a feeble boy could render seems 
proved by her never hesitating assertion that 
"Nathaniel was the best boy she ever knew, 
almost as good as a girl." My health was always 
poor, and to stoop, pull weeds, pick stones, dig 
potatoes and pick apples caused the blood to 
rush to my head so as to make it ache almost 
to distraction. My mother was sensible of it, but 
could not always relieve me. Sometimes she 
would take me into the house to assist her, for, 
though she always had at least one young child, 
she never had more than one woman to help 
her, except one day in the week, or sometimes in 
a fortnight, she had Peggy Scott, an old Dutch 
woman, to help wash and iron, which left very 
much work for her to do in which I could help 
her. There were baking, brewing, cooking, 
washing dishes, making beds, occasionally mak- 
ing soap, scouring floors and sanding them, etc., 
etc., but worst of all taking care of the children; 
she was obliged, however, to let them shirk for 
themselves with very little attention. Those 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 47 

who could not walk had to creep, and these had 
a leather apron, which fishermen call a burvel, 
put before them to creep upon and save their 
clothes. There was also mending clothes, knitting 
stockings, and had there been three smart wo- 
men there would have been work enough for 
them to do. How she lived through it I cannot 
tell, but there is an old proverb that "every 
back is fitted for its burthen." The family 
increased to twelve sons and three daughters, 
with but little of this world's goods, located on 
a farm naturally bare and hard to cultivate, 
requiring much labor to produce even the 
necessaries of life, for of luxuries they were 
contented with very few even when they sought 
for any. On this little farm, naturally rough and 
hard to till, the income from which was of course 
small, every man, woman and child was obliged 
to work and to fare hard ; by the time they were 
six years old there was found work enough for 
them to do both in summer and winter. I do not 
recollect of there being more than one female 
assistant at one time in the house, unless when 
there was a nurse and sometimes a washer- 
woman one day in the week; and moderns 
must be told, or else they would not know from 
present customs, the amount of labor performed 
by two women, and frequently the assistant 



48 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

was but little better than a help-eat. In those 
days they baked all their bread, brewed their 
own beer, made their own soap, did all their 
sewing except making some new garments, knit 
their own stockings if they wore any, and often 
spun the yarn, made the cloth for their shirts 
and sheets and even pocket handkerchiefs, ex- 
cept in all cases the weaving and sometimes 
taking a spinster into the house. The sleeved 
jackets and trousers were manufactured in the 
same family way; in making pocket handker- 
chiefs, the white linen was first made, though 
not very fine, and handed to the children, who 
tied shot up fancifully in it, and then dyed in 
the dye-pot in the corner of the fire-place ; when 
done, washed and dried, we untied the shot, 
and behold the beautiful white rings made by 
the strings round the shot through which the 
dye did not penetrate; to make the checked and 
striped shirts, the colored part was dyed in the 
same pot. 

About ten or fifteen rods from the house 
was an uncovered well, generally full of water, 
about eight feet deep, where we watered the 
cattle and horses; there was no curb, and when 
children had crept out of sight and could not 
easily be found the fear was that they had crept 
to and had fallen into this well and were drowned. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 49 

How often have I seen the anxious mother 
search the spring, when by reaching and stirring 
with a long stick bubbles would rise, which 
went far to convince her that the child was there, 
and she suffered most excruciatingly until the 
missing was found. 

At about four years of age I was sent in the 
summer to a school kept by a female about 
a mile to the westward of our dwelling; 1 we 
had such books as were generally used in the 
country schools of that day, to wit: a primer, 
Dilworth's spelling-book, a Bible, or in lieu 
of it a Psalter and the New Testament. The 
latter books, of course, were not used until we 
had made some proficiency in learning, for he 
who could read in the Bible with a "good tone" 
was much of a scholar. I made as good progress 
as country boys generally do at such schools. 
After the weather became very hot, it was thought 
by our parents to be too fatiguing for us to go 
home to dinner, and to carry a bottle of beer and 
a little cold meat and bread, or bread and cheese 
alone, would be injurious to our health; warm 
sour malt or bran beer w T as not a great luxury, 
and it was, therefore, concluded to have our 
mode of living changed. Upon a knoll a few rods 

1 The building is still standing near the junction of Newton and Grove 
streets, and in use as a schoolhouse. 



50 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

distant from the schoolhouse was a regular 
pitched roof placed upon a stoned cellar; when 
needed a fire was kept at one end and at the other 
end was a sudden declivity with a stoned en- 
trance. At or near the corner at the left hand 
side of the entrance stood an old-fashioned loom 
for weaving, and on the right after entering was 
a small sash glass light, the top of which was 
even with the bottom of the eaves of the roof, the 
dirt being scraped away so as to admit some light 
when the door was shut. This door, with a 
wooden latch, was made of rough boards and 
battens. Just forward of the entrance stood a 
still for distilling different kinds of waters such 
as rose water, pennyroyal water, mint and tansy 
water. You will observe that the entrance was 
on a level with the bottom part of the cellar, there 
being a small excavation to admit the door to 
open outward, cooking utensils being on one 
side of the fire when there was any. In this cellar, 
or rather under this roof, lived or had a being a 
most curious old lady known by the name of 
Nab Wilson, who existed in a state of single- 
blessedness, perhaps for the reason given by 
another old lady for her persistence in a single 
life, to wit: that "anybody she would have 
would n't have her, and one who would have 
her the devil would n't have." She was about 



SCHOOLHOUSE IN BROOKLINE, MASS. 

Where Nathaniel Goddard attended School 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 51 

four feet six inches in height, with a very dark 
complexion, very long black beard, and re- 
markably thick lips, the under one turned over 
to her chin thicker than any negro's. I never 
knew that she was related to anyone on earth. 
This good old lady said she had seen snakes 
look in at her window, the only company she 
could fairly calculate upon seeing, and I should 
not think that the same snake would look in a 
second time. My object in introducing Nab 
Wilson is to give you a just idea of a plan my 
father made and put into execution to feed his 
children in a way more conducive to their health 
than that previously pursued. We had, I pre- 
sume purchased by our father, a privilege in this 
establishment or restorator, in moderate lan- 
guage, a right to use the fireplace for cooking 
chocolate, so that we might have a hot dinner. 
I say "we" because there were always two or 
sometimes three of us to dine, besides the cook, 
who was also the schoolmistress. An iron skil- 
let, some milk carried from home in a bottle, 
some bread, pint basins and pewter spoons, I 
presume with some sugar or molasses, but I 
don't recollect this luxury with certainty, con- 
stituted our supplies. We picked up sticks for a 
fire to boil our chocolate, and the mistress saw 
to the cooking and portioning out in our pew- 



52 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

ter basins. In this way we ate our luxurious 
meals. 

My character, even at that early period, was in 
some respects what it has been ever since ; when 
I had made up my mind as I thought right, I 
w T as rather obstinate and not easily governed. I 
was so well acquainted with the mistress, who 
had always lived in our family and whom I had 
never obeyed at home, that I considered my- 
self about as important a character as herself, 
even in school, and had often said to the scholars 
that I would not mind the mistress unless I chose 
to do so. One day when the scholars were stand- 
ing around in a half circle to read the Bible, I 
was ordered very peremptorily to look on my 
book. The eyes of all were upon me; I did not 
obey, my word was passed and I was too honest 
or too proud to violate it. I persisted more ob- 
stinately in keeping my eyes in other directions, 
and her orders were repeated again and again, 
but to no purpose; I was still obstinate and 
would not have minded though I had known 
death would ensue, for my word had gone forth. 
Very soon came the walnut stick over my back; 
this I thought a lad of spirit must resent. She 
took hold of me by my left arm and applied the 
stick rapidly and with some force, but to no 
purpose; I had the Bible in my hand open at 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 53 

about the middle, and I applied this with all the 
force I was capable of using until the book gave 
way, and the leaves were strewn about the floor. 
She found she could not conquer me, and, being 
stronger than I was, pushed me out of the door 
and kept me out until the school was dismissed. 
Soon after, however, the chocolate arrangement 
was given up and we carried our dinners as be- 
fore, generally cold meat, sometimes cold boiled 
beef minced up and put into a pewter basin, 
and brown, that is Indian and rye, bread, from 
the crust of which we made scoops for use in- 
stead of a knife or spoon. Sometimes we had 
sausages, but these were a rare treat; we cooked 
them ourselves at noon time in the following 
manner: we cut a stick in Deacon Gardner's 
woods (now Mr. Thayer's) about as big and as 
long as we used to be flogged with, sharpened 
the small end and passed it through the sausage 
lengthwise, and then held it to the fire, sometimes 
over the coals and sometimes in the blaze ; what 
they did not get in cooking they did get in 
smoke, but we had a plenty of Lacedaemonian 
sauce and our dinner relished well. Our neigh- 
bors had children at the same school, and one 
good, honest, kind old farmer and his wife who 
lived near the schoolhouse took compassion on 
us little urchins and ordered one of their chil- 



54 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

dren to invite us to dine there, meaning only 
occasionally. He did, and we accepted the 
invitation, and in addition to meat we always 
had an Indian pudding with molasses; it was 
very good though pretty hard, and we feasted 
there daily; for, as the son continued to invite 
us very pressingly, we continued to accept the 
invitations without speaking to our parents on 
the subject, and without thinking of any impro- 
priety in going daily, until we accidentally heard 
the mother say to her son, "You should not 
invite those boys every day; we are glad to see 
them sometimes." This caused us to reflect 
upon the subject, and we never went there again, 
nor do I think that I have since visited out of the 
family, or its branches, half a dozen times. We 
resisted ever after the strongest solicitations 
from our kind neighbors, our dignity having 
received an incurable wound. I disliked the 
idea of going to a woman's school, and as one 
was kept in Brookline by a man we soon after 
left the woman's school and never went to one 
again. Our master proved to be but little better 
than our mistress, and we were obliged to walk 
about as far, the school being kept near the 
centre of the town-. The distance was about a 
mile and a half, and we had to break the paths 
through the snow, for no public road came 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 55 

within half a mile of the house. Sometimes we 
had masters from Cambridge, and sometimes 
we were taught by a Brookline farmer named 
Stephen Sharp, a good, honest, old-fashioned 
man who could read in the Bible and write 
"joining hand," and made us repeat anything 
that was beyond his comprehension in the spell- 
ing-book. When the Bible was read the scholars 
were arranged in a line, and sometimes filled the 
outer seats around the room. Each one read in 
succession, and afterwards the words were put 
to us to spell from the spelling-book, and any 
one who missed was obliged to go to the bot- 
tom of the class. The master would sometimes 
favor one more than the other, and if the favorite 
put all the letters belonging in, he would let it 
pass for right, however they might be transposed. 
We had not much to complain of, however, as 
we were allowed but few days at school; one 
winter I kept an account of the number — it 
amounted to sixty and a half. Some less favored 
boys did not visit the school ten times in a year, 
and were never so fortunate as to learn the 
sound of the letters. The master classed them 
rather by their size than by their attainment. 
One boy, who probably did not know by sight 
a letter in the alphabet, was called upon to 
spell "sugar;" he paused, not knowing what to 



56 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

say, but, being threatened with punishment if 
he did not speak, cried out "c-r-o;" he was then 
told to spell "for," to which he replied "1-e." 
Under a master of whose judgment we may 
form some slight opinion by this account, I tried 
to get forward. 

As soon as the spring came, we left school to 
make fagots and pick up stones on land laid 
down to grass, sowing small seeds for vegetables 
for the market; then pulling weeds, picking 
vegetables and fruit for market, making cider 
and doing all things as they came in course, oc- 
cupied us every season until harvesting was over. 
Almost all was stooping work for the boys, and 
affected me in a very peculiar manner, causing a 
pressure of blood to my head and pain more than 
I can describe; hence my dislike to farming. 

About this time was the Battle of Concord 
and Lexington. The summer preceding, when 
about seven years old, I had visited Boston with 
my father. I went to the Common, saw the 
British troops (then called "regulars," or some- 
times "redcoats") exercise and then stack their 
guns, to me a brilliant sight. Not long after this, 
the previously named battle took place, and my 
father, a sincere Whig, violent in the cause of his 
country, obeyed the earliest summons and left 
his farm for the battle ground of Lexington. He 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 57 

supplied seven small arms, carrying one himself, 
and, after arming his hired man, Joel Hager, 1 
loaned the other pieces to such persons as had 
none. He was active and useful to the extent of 
his ability, was appointed Wagon Master Gen- 
eral, procured teams and transported from place 
to place the government stores. We had one mor- 
tar called the " old sow," a few field pieces, a large 
quantity of shells from eighteen inches down- 
wards, cannon balls from twenty-four pounds, 
and grape-shot, powder, canteens, etc., etc. 2 The 
town of Boston was besieged immediately after 
the above-named battle, and when I was about 
eight years old I saw from the window of the 
house in which I was born the shells thrown from 
Boston to Lechmere's Point by the British, the 
burning fuse appearing like shooting stars. Bos- 
ton being besieged, a regiment of Rhode Island 
troops was stationed on what was called Winches- 
ter Hill, near Jamaica Pond, as a surety for the 
shells, shot, etc. piled in by-places in my father's 
pasture, and the powder stored in the chamber 

1 "Sept. 6, 1773, Joel Hager came to live with me." "Aug. 31, 
1775, Joel Hager receipts for two years' labor (£41: 6:8)." From John 
Goddard's Expense Book, preserved in the public library of the town 
of Brookline. 

2 A part of these stores was afterwards, for greater security, trans- 
ported to Concord, as appears by the following entry in the Expense Book : 
" April 10, 1775 carted two ox-cart loads and two horse-cart loads of 
canteens to Concord." One of these teams was driven by John Goddard 
himself, and another by his son Joseph, then a lad of fourteen. 



58 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

of my father' s^shop, the building before alluded 
to as the temporary residence of the family. 
There was also a corporal's guard of soldiers 
stationed particularly to guard the powder. My 
father being most of the time absent on public 
business, the farm was carried on by my elder 
brother, Samuel, and my mother gave liberty to 
the guard to take peas, beans, and such vegetables 
as they might wish, upon the condition that they 
would guard the fields by night from the strag- 
gling soldiers on Winchester Hill; but I believe 
they imposed upon her credulity and allowed 
their comrades to depredate, as we missed 
many things, particularly our currants and other 
fruits. We complained to them, and they pro- 
mised to be more vigilant. The next night they 
discharged their muskets several times in the 
vicinity and reported that they had shot at 
thieves, but no one was killed, and the farce was 
only to ease my mother's mind. The soldiers 
from the Hill cut many trees for shade while 
there, and we boys used to go and forbid them, 
and we thought we drove them off, but they 
were soon at their work again. 

Soon after this was the Battle of Bunker's Hill. 
We heard the cannon, and from our dwelling saw 
Charlestown burning. While the powder was in 
my father's shop not more than fifteen feet from 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 59 

the house, and the corporal's guard watching it, 
the guard slept on straw on the lower floor of the 
building, and amused themselves in the evening 
by playing cards by candle light. One night 
there was a most terrible thunderstorm; light- 
ning struck and split to pieces a large Catherine 
pear tree not fifteen feet from the shop, rending 
it from the top to the roots. Notwithstanding 
this, it lived and bore fruit for nearly forty years. 
Had the lightning struck the shop, I should not 
have been here to record the fact. The re- 
port was circulated that some person had said, 
"There is the American powder in that building, 
but it will not be there a week hence." This 
report was sent to the commander on the Hill, 
and he increased the guard to a sergeant's com- 
mand. The barn 1 was nearly filled with the can- 
teens of the soldiers, which, to prevent suspicion, 
were enclosed by hay in large wagons and carts 
to resemble loads of hay, the Tories being very 
much on the alert and from their superior 
knowledge of the country more troublesome 
than the British soldiers. The teams, to the 
shame of the country, were procured by my 
father's own funds and promises, and were paid 
for with much good money. He received in 
return depreciated Continental money, much of 

1 This bam is standing to-day in its original position. 



60 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

which he had on hand when a hundred dollars 
was not worth a good ninepence. Soon the 
stores were transported to the army, Washington 
took command and planned the expedition to 
take and fortify Dorchester Heights. My father 
had men employed in cutting and making fascines 1 
to carry onto the Hill, and in getting the teams 
ready to transport all the stores for the troops. 
The time was fixed for all to assemble, teams 
were loaded, but very few, not one of the team- 
sters, knew their destination. When all was 
ready and at the time fixed they started in pro- 
found silence, not a word to be spoken even to 
the cattle, and all went on in deathlike quiet 
towards Dorchester Heights. The enemy was not 
alarmed until the daylight appeared and the 
fortification on the " great hill " was visible to them 
from Boston. The world knows what followed. 2 
My father was so eager in the cause that, having 
a son born about six months after the Battle of 
Bunker's Hill, he, with his sword by his side, 
carried him up to be christened "Warren." 
I was in my ninth year when Washington took 

1 The saplings for these were cut in the woods between Dorchester 
and Milton. 

2 "John Goddard had three hundred teams under his command. 
General Heath said that probably never was so much work done in so 
short a time." From " Brookline in the Revolution," the James Murray- 
Kay prize essay (Brookline High School) for 1895, by Margaret Elizabeth 
May. 



OLD BARN 

Goddard Homestead Estate 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 61 

possession of the Heights and commenced his 
fortifications. The British army made prepara- 
tions to dislodge him, but before these prepara- 
tions were completed, or about that time, a 
violent southeast storm and gale of wind dis- 
persed their boats and gondolas, and gave 
Washington time to push forward his work so 
as to render the attack hazardous, and the 
enemy soon left Boston, throwing overboard 
everything which in their hurry they could not 
conveniently carry away, such as cannon balls, 
shells, etc. After they left, a part of our army 
went on to Rhode Island, and my father fol- 
lowed with the baggage, stores, etc. He, however, 
resigned and left the army, which proceeded to 
New York that season, not feeling it right to 
leave his helpless family, and returned to his 
farm. He was a very religious man, and made 
morning and evening prayers in his family. I 
well remember with what fervor he prayed for 
the success of our cause: "Be with those of 
our brothers, O Lord, who jeopard their lives 
in the high places of the field in defense of their 
country; may their heads be covered in the day 
of battle, may their lives and their limbs be 
precious in Thy sight; may they go forth to 
war in the name of the Lord of Hosts, may they 
do valiantly, do Thou back their hands to war 



m NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and their fingers to fight, may they play the 
man for their country and for the City of their 
God; may they pull down their enemies and 
put to flight their armies and drive the aliens 
entirely from our country." In those days our 
cause was considered so just that the God of 
battle was entirely on our side. 

About the middle of October, 1777, I being 
about ten years of age, news came of Burgoyne's 
surrender of his whole army to General Gates. 
Burgoyne's army consisted in part of Hessians 
hired by England from a petty prince of Germany 
to fight her battles. We learned the day on which 
they were to pass through Watertown to Cam- 
bridge, where some of our troops were stationed. 
Joseph, Benjamin, myself and Jonathan were dig- 
ging potatoes in a piece of land called Woodward 
Meadow, when our father came out and told 
us that if we wished we might leave the potatoes 
and go to Watertown and see them pass. Joseph 
was about sixteen years old, Benjamin was eleven, 
I ten, and Jonathan seven. We were principally 
barefoot with long jackets and long trousers, and 
mostly had straw hats. We started at the mo- 
ment with all expedition for Watertown, and 
certainly we lost no time, but on arriving there 
we were informed that they had passed. We 
started again, running much of the way, Joseph 






NATHANIEL GODDARD 63 

ahead, Benjamin next, I next, and Jonathan in 
the rear almost out of sight but never quite so, 
with his straw hat in his hand, having little if any 
rim to it; he held on by the crown and certainly 
ran well for one of his age. We followed the road 
down towards Cambridge and soon came up 
with the troops. They were sitting by the side 
of the road on the wall, the officers on horseback, 
and all guarded by American soldiers, some on 
the flanks, some in the rear, and, I believe, a few 
in front. Here was the greatest sight we had 
ever witnessed. When we came up with them 
they were eating their dinner, after which they 
again moved on and we followed them, passing 
through the lines and then waiting again for 
them to come up. There did not appear to be 
many lookers on till we reached Cambridge. 
After the troops and prisoners had passed and 
got to their barracks, we started for home, fol- 
lowing the road from thence to Brookline, quit- 
ting it near the entrance of the estate lately 
belonging to Lewis Tappan, Esq., crossing over 
the steep hill lately W alley's, now Bradlee's, 
and then made the best of our way home. I 
never was so tired as when mounting Bradlee's 
Hill. Suffice it to say that we all reached home 
safe, but tired enough. I well remember that on 
questioning us which road we took and where 



64 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

we went, the. folks at home summed up the 
several distances and concluded that they 
amounted to between fifteen and sixteen miles, 
during which time we had nothing to eat and our 
breakfast had been very early. The next day 
to our potatoes again. I do not remember, but 
I now presume these prisoners were sent to 
Cambridge for the purpose of being exchanged, 
and probably cartels were fitted out at Boston 
for this purpose. The Tories, as I have said, 
were the most troublesome of our enemies. We 
had but few of these in Brookline. Even as early 
as the Battle of Concord all who favored the 
English had withdrawn, for I recollect that it 
was said that there was but one man in Brook- 
line who did not go to the battle, and that was 
a Mr. Ackers who " could not get ready ; " but 
he was not a Tory. But one of these was killed, 
but he was one of the first men of the town, 
Squire Gardner, 1 father of the late General 
Gardner. My father's hired man, Joel Hager, 
of whom I have before spoken, got behind a 
tree where he loaded and fired all the time the 
British were passing, and on examining the 
tree afterwards it was found that seven balls 
from the enemy had hit it, but the man was not 

1 Isaac Gardner, Junior, the first Harvard graduate (class of 1747) to 
fall in the War of the Revolution, was killed on North Avenue, Cambridge, 
during the retreat of the British troops from Lexington. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 65 

wounded. Dr. Downer from near the Punch 
Bowl Tavern was attacked by three soldiers who 
were leaving a house they had been in to plunder; 
he shot one, a random shot from a distance, 
killed another, and had one antagonist left, and 
as both of their guns were discharged the doctor 
knocked him down with the butt end of his gun, 
took that of the soldier, which was, as he said, 
better than his own, and ran him through with 
the bayonet while begging for quarter, and 
killed him. 

In the state the country was in at that time 
the people were peculiarly distressed; it was 
not what a foreign war would be ; we were con- 
sidered as revolting colonies, rebels, which was 
sufficient to keep aloof supplies by foreigners. 
Our ports were then considered as British Colo- 
nial ports, and we could get no supplies but what 
we could introduce clandestinely or obtain by 
capture. We were extremely distressed for even 
the necessaries of life, and we had very few of 
its luxuries or conveniences. The women were 
obliged to use thorns instead of pins to fasten 
on their clothes. Of sugar and molasses we were 
destitute, and a Mr. Nathaniel Seaver of Brook- 
line procured a form of West India sugar-mill, 
differing a little from our common cider-mill, but 
only in having an extra pair of nuts, and it took 



66 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

two persons to feed it. He erected a mill in 
Brookline for grinding cornstalks to make sugar. 
One person entered the ends of the stalks on one 
side, and on the other was another person to receive 
them as they came through and entered them to 
go back between the next two screws or nuts, 
and the juice or sap dropped into a bucket placed 
underneath to receive it; it was then boiled 
down to the consistency of molasses. Unfortu- 
nately, they ceased boiling down ours before it 
was thick enough ; it tasted like sweetened water 
with a flavor of cornstalks, very sickish, and we 
could not use it. It occurred to my father's 
mind that it might be distilled to make spirits of, 
which were very scarce and high, for hay time; 
Nab Wilson was consulted, who had been in 
the habit of distilling rose water, mint and tansy 
water, and did not know that previous fermenta- 
tion was necessary to produce spirits. She went 
through with her usual process of distilling 
waters, and produced water a little tinctured 
with mint which she had previously been dis- 
tilling. It was ever after called and used as 
"Nab Wilson's water." I have no distinct recol- 
lection of anything remarkable from the time 
I was ten years old until nearly thirteen, except- 
ing that I had a severe fit of sickness which lasted 
some months; the doctor called my disease a 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 67 

slow, nervous, bilious fever. I was confined in 
the same room in which I was born, and all 
expected I would die there. Dr. Aspinwall was 
our family physician, but in extraordinary cases 
Dr. Davis of Roxbury was called, for he was the 
iEsculapius of the times. After the fever had 
subsided I was left so weak that it was about 
sixty days before I could stand. While recruit- 
ing they gave me what they called wine, and 
truly it was wine, but with the creatures vul- 
garly called "sow-bugs" squeezed into it. I 
was suspicious there was something besides 
wine in the glass, and one day heard my mother 
say to Benjamin, "You must go and get some 
more." "I can't find any," said Benjamin. " Go 
to Mr. Edward Childs' and see if you can't 
find some in his cellar." "I have been there, 
ma'am, and have turned up every stone in his 
cellar and got all that I could." This strength- 
ened my suspicion, and I questioned them so 
closely that I was well satisfied and refused all 
wine in the future. During my sickness, day and 
night, my mother spared no labor or fatigue; 
with her large family, and with very little assist- 
ance, she performed her task faithfully, from 
daylight to bedtime, continually laboring for a 
family of sometimes sixteen or eighteen and fre- 
quently with no other help than one of the boys. 



68 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

After this, until I was about thirteen years of 
age, farming went on as usual. In the spring 
making fagots, when the frost was over picking 
stones, next sowing onions, beets, carrots, pars- 
nips, turnips, etc., then weeding, planting po- 
tatoes and corn, hoeing them, making hay, 
picking and grinding apples, making cider, 
picking winter apples, digging potatoes, until the 
time came again in the autumn for picking 
stones until frost, then making fagots until 
snow covered the bushes, and then a short spell 
of school. Our father was executor of the will 
of Joshua Woodward, and could not let the 
farm, so he undertook to carry that on in addi- 
tion to his own, for he liked much to keep his 
boys employed. There were a great many 
dandelions on the place, and our elder brother 
Samuel, who had charge of the business, per- 
mitted Benjamin and myself to dig some for 
market in hopes of getting some trifle for them, 
perhaps half of a pistareen or a ninepence. We 
did not wholly lose our time, however, and we 
were allowed some perquisites. Our father 
kept fowls, and each one who wished it had a 
hen for himself, or rather a part of the produce 
of one. The conditions were that we should see 
that they were fed, the eggs collected, and the 
chickens taken care of. The hen was to set once 



NATHANIEL GODDAED 69 

in a year, we to have half the brood of chickens 
when fit for market, and our father the other 
half to pay him for their food, etc.; we some- 
times had three or four or perhaps five chickens 
ready for market in the autumn, our father 
having the feathers. Another perquisite Benja- 
min and I had alternately was that of taking 
care of and fattening the hogs, as a remuneration 
for which we had the bladders when the hogs 
were killed. Our father allowed us another 
privilege, to wit, one holiday in the year, which 
was Election Day, but if we would work half 
that day he would give us for it a whole day after 
harvesting was over; we often did so, as we were 
desirous of spending it in gunning, or " squarrel- 
ling," as we called it. How to get the necessary 
half pound of powder and two pounds of shot 
we did not know. Joseph came to market, and 
when we asked him if he would buy it for us the 
answer was that it depended upon our behavior 
from that time, and he would never buy it but 
on the last day before we wanted to use it. If 
he wanted cider we must run and draw it for 
him and do all he asked for months before to 
pay him for buying the powder and shot. We 
were also allowed a small piece of land for a 
garden, as we called it, where we might, by 
stealing time enough, cultivate a few things to 



70 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

sell, such as- sage, wormwood, roots, or cives, 
balm, etc. In spring, summer and autumn we 
had no other leisure time, but while we went to 
school in winter we had the afternoon of Satur- 
day, as school did not keep, but by the time we 
got home we had the wood to cut and split, the 
cattle to take care of and sundry things to do 
preparatory to Sunday, so that in fact we worked 
as hard on that half -day as on any other. 

About the latter part of February or beginning 
of March, 1780, Samuel hired a small farm about a 
half-mile from the Milton Upper Road. The first 
house on this road was kept as a kind of tavern, 
but a poor one; the second house was farmer 
Bugbee's, he being the first man that ever 
scraped the streets of Boston and carted out 
the scrapings for manure; the third house was 
on the farm hired by Samuel, [his barn being 
on a hill or rise of ground a little nearer Bos- 
ton. The buildings named, the only ones in 
the street, except Mr. J. D. Williams', until 
you reached Featherbed Lane, were upon the 
westerly side of the street. Behind the barn 
above named I was making fagots for brother 
Samuel on the memorable "dark day" in May, 
1780, and worked so long after the darkness 
commenced that with difficulty I could find the 
house, but a few rods distant, to get my dinner. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 71 

Many persons were out on the roads all night 
lost in the darkness, which in proportion to the 
darkness of the day seemed greater than that of 
the ordinary night; we could almost feel it. 

When Samuel commenced, my father calcu- 
lated on giving each of his children the amount of 
a hundred pounds lawful money, being 333.33 
dollars. But little of this was in money; it con- 
sisted of a yoke of oxen, yoke-chain, plow, 
harrow, etc., a horse and cart, shovels, not 
iron ones but wooden ones shod with iron, some 
hay, corn, pork, etc. ; and he furnished me for a 
boy. As housekeepers Samuel had the family of 
Mr. Merriam, grandfather to the president of 
the Mercantile Marine Insurance Company; his 
grandmother was my mother's sister. I lived 
there until autumn, and on the commencement 
of winter returned to my father's in order to go 
to school. Here I completed my studies, learn- 
ing to read in the Bible so as to be understood 
pretty well, though I was never taught to observe 
the stops, but read it and everything else as if 
there were none; and to spell most of the words 
in Dilworth's spelling-book. I learned also 
that "in Adam's fall we sinned all," for our 
good clergyman, the Reverend Joseph Jackson, 
believed, or rather gave us to understand that 
he believed, in the doctrine of "election;" that 



72 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

very few were to be saved from hell fire, and that 
although we were of the elect, we were not sure 
of salvation, for if we committed one sin we were 
guilty of breaking the whole law and thereby 
made liable to eternal damnation. At the same 
time was proclaimed God's infinite mercy to 
our race and I was taught that I must love Him 
with all my heart, soul, mind and might. I 
could not reconcile this unreasonable, incon- 
sistent doctrine, and if I did not I was surely 
to be damned. 

I was then thirteen years old and was very 
desirous of being a merchant, partly perhaps 
from the want of bodily strength, as my health 
was feeble; but my father was always opposed 
to his sons being anything but farmers. He 
claimed the right to fix upon the kind of busi- 
ness I should follow, and accordingly talked with 
Mr. Nehemiah Monroe and persuaded him to 
take me as an apprentice to learn the cabinet-mak- 
ing business. "Better than farming," thought I. 
Early in the spring, after leaving Samuel and the 
school, I went to him. He set me to work making 
pegs ; he had no other apprentice, but two jour- 
neymen, by the names of Clapp and Hunting. 
To encourage me, they told me I should only be 
required to make a barrel full that each was re- 
quired to make on commencing his apprentice- 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 73 

ship. I thought that enough, but found out after- 
wards that it meant only a lamp-black barrel full. 
My next business was sawing mahogany logs and 
planks lengthwise w T ith a handsaw, but I was 
small and weak, and made poor progress. When 
the spring came on, having a farm, he put me at 
work in the field, and being barefoot and treading 
upon a thorn ran it far into my heel so that I came 
near losing my foot. I experienced the most ex- 
cruciating pain, went home and was attended by 
Dr. Aspinwall. The fear that I should lose my 
foot induced my parents to send for Dr. Downer, 
then considered the best surgeon, and finally I 
recovered, but no human being can imagine 
what I suffered, for it continued a long time. I 
told my father that I did not wish to learn to be a 
farmer of Mr. Monroe, and he went to see him. 
Mr. Monroe told him it was his practice and 
ever would be to make his apprentices work on 
the farm the first year, and to work in the shop 
in such weather only as they could not work 
outside. My father was well satisfied that my 
complaint was just, and did not force me back 
again. Mr. Samuel Aspinwall, uncle to the 
present mast-maker in this city, informed me 
that a Mr. Homes, a goldsmith and jeweller, 
wanted an apprentice. Mr. Aspinwall was from 
Brookline, had been a schoolmate of mine, and 



74 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

was apprenticed to Thomas Pons, a jeweller 
who had a shop a little above Summer Street, 
then "Seven Stars Lane," and thought I should 
like Mr. Homes. I agreed to go and stay for a 
fortnight, when I was to determine whether I 
would stay longer. The business came nearer 
what I wished than either farming or cabinet- 
making. His shop was the next above the Amory 
estate on the westerly side of Washington Street 
south of Winter Street, and his house was an 
old wooden one two stories high, quite up a yard 
next easterly of Oliver Street, on the side of Fort 
Hill; he had many children and was very poor. 
My first dinner was tainted lamb; I don't recol- 
lect what supper was, but an old manuscript 
says my breakfast was bread and milk. My 
bed, if bed it could be called, was made of 
straw and laid upon the floor of the garret under 
the eaves. I had no sheets, but two worn-out 
blankets, and fleas enough to meet Bonaparte's 
army and perhaps to defeat it. I slept none 
the first night; it was in July, the weather was 
very hot, and the sun beat upon the roof till the 
garret was almost like a furnace. I stood it for 
nearly a week, during which time I made a 
silver sleeve-button, learned a little to engrave 
letters on copper, plated out silver and "plan- 
ished" it for spoons, and annealed silver and 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 75 

drew it out into wire through plates of different 
sizes until it was small enough for chains and 
eyes for sleeve-buttons. To make eyes for 
sleeve-buttons I took the wire thus annealed, 
wound it round a suitable sized wire "close" as 
in whipping a rope, then filed the flat straight 
surface till I filed off the wire which was wound 
down to that it was bound upon; then I had 
all the eyes necessary for the buttons, to which 
the eyes were fastened with solder and borax. 
I was charged by Mr. Homes during the few 
days I was there to sweep the shop carefully 
every morning and save all the dirt on account 
of the silver filings that might get scattered in it, 
and this although in filing the silver it must 
always be over an apron of leather, one side of 
which was attached to the bench and the other 
side to my body, for, said he, " My master swept 
his shop and saved the dirt in this way and in a 
few years got silver enough to make a tankard." 
The mode of extracting it from the dirt was to 
put it into a crucible and heat it so hot as to 
consume a great part of the dirt and cause the 
silver to melt and run together. The way we 
used to extract the iron from the silver was to 
melt the whole in a crucible, put in a piece of 
lodestone and stir it with the stone, to which the 
iron would tenaciously adhere. 



76 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

In those days we had no regular market; the 
greater part of the meats were brought into town 
in panniers on horseback, and after entering the 
town the marketer would get off his horse and lead 
him by the bridle in one hand and in the other 
a quarter of lamb or mutton, marching all over 
town until he sold it. They had no ice to keep it 
upon, and no refrigerators to put it in, so that 
what they could not sell while sweet was lost. 
My master always waited for a marketer return- 
ing out of town with some meat left, which he 
would buy very cheap, perhaps for ninepence or 
a shilling a quarter, and it would be almost al- 
ways tainted before it was cooked. One day, 
after I had been there about a week, I saw 
brother Joseph coming on the forepart of the 
market-cart steering out of town. I went to 
Mr. Homes and stated to him that as I agreed 
to stay a fortnight on trial I would stay the time 
if he wanted me to, but I had satisfied myself 
that I should not wish to stay and learn the trade. 
He then said it would make no difference, I 
need not stay the other week. So I ran and got 
into the cart with brother Joseph and rode home. 

I have now reached the latter part of the 
month of July, 1781, and was then at home from 
the jeweller's shop. My brother John had 
opened an apothecary shop in Portsmouth, 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 77 

N. H., and wanted me to go and live with him. 
On quitting college, finding himself, as he 
stated, totally unqualified for the ministry, he 
had concluded to study physic, which he did 
with Dr. Ammi R. Cutter of Portsmouth. After 
he had got through his studies, Clement Storer 
then being a student also, they verbally agreed 
that John should go to France in a letter of 
marque ship * and procure medicines for the 
purpose of opening an apothecary shop in 
Portsmouth. On his passage out he was captured 
and carried into Santa Lucia, and kept on board 
a prison-ship, and suffered extremely. At length 
a cartel was fitted out from Boston, the expense 
of which was paid by those who had friends 
there, and I recollect hearing my father talk 
about the expense, from which I infer that he 
paid for one. John was exchanged and reached 
home 2 with nothing but the clothes he had on, 
but before he got back Storer had gone to 
Europe; therefore John, being totally destitute, 

1 John Goddard was duly enlisted surgeon on this vessel, but during the 
engagement in which he was taken prisoner alternately served in aid of 
the wounded in the cock-pit and as fighting-man on deck. In the prison- 
ship he suffered a severe fever, escaping afterwards by squeezing through 
one of the ports, which his emaciated condition aided him in doing, and 
swimming to a vessel bound for the United States. In this he was again 
captured and returned to the same prison-ship, where he again fell ill of 
the fever. From this second imprisonment he was released by exchange as 
narrated. 

2 On a Sunday morning, and in such altered and emaciated condition 
that his mother who opened the door did not recognize him. 



78 NATHANIEL GODDAED 

of course was not entitled to any credit. By some 
means, however, he obtained enough of Dr. 
Redford Webster of Boston, by whom he ever 
afterward was supplied with stock in that line, 
to enable him to begin. He went to Portsmouth 
and opened a shop, and as I had left my other 
place and was at home he proposed to my 
father to let me go to him as an apprentice. The 
Revolutionary War was then raging, everyone 
was poor, but my good mother fitted me out as 
well as she could. My father got old Mr. Abram 
Adams, then a leather dresser in the South End 
of Boston, to make me a pair of small clothes; 
but they were too small every way, were rather 
tighter than my skin, the waistband could 
scarcely be drawn over my hips so as to hold 
them up, and the knees buttoned with great 
difficulty by pulling a string double through the 
buttonhole round the button and drawing the 
button through, and when buttoned came just 
to the bend of the knee. I had also a striped 
linen and woolen sleeve jacket, and my mother, 
with all her other cares and anxieties, had got 
two pair of blue yarn socks, two tow shirts 
which she bleached with buttermilk and which 
approached to white (we had heretofore worn 
striped or checked shirts), a good pair of double- 
soled cowhide shoes, and contrived to have 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 79 

made some homespun woolen cloth, woven by 
Nab Wilson, which she got "fulled," and which 
would answer for a blanket or a jacket. Of this 
I had a waistcoat made, it was lovely warm, and 
my father bought me a felt hat; after being 
worn a little and wet, the crown would rise up 
like a sugarloaf, and then would do capitally 
for a grenadier, but in addition I had a second- 
hand cocked-hat, called a "castor" hat, to wear 
to meeting. Thus equipped, I was ready for a 
start. John wrote that there was a packet in 
Boston for Portsmouth soon to return, and that 
I could get a passage upon that. I ascertained 
where this ship lay, and was ready on her day of 
sailing, August 9, 1781, taking with me some- 
thing to eat, for I had to find myself in provisions. 
We got under weigh and out of the harbor, but 
when about half way to Cape Ann the wind 
died away and it became perfectly calm. The 
ship rolled with a heavy swell, and I was as sick 
as Jonah was when his gourd withered away, 
for the sun beat down hot and I lay on the deck 
wishing I could die without doing violence to 
myself. When I arrived in Portsmouth on the 
following afternoon thus attired, I don't know 
what they thought of Dr. Goddard's brother. 
But John, poor as he was, had some pride, sent 
for a tailor, and made a barter with him for a 



80 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

pair of black everlasting breeches, and in part 
pay gave him my leather ones. He then went 
to an old hatter by the name of Groward, to get 
him to dye my white woolen waistcoat black. 
The old man said he could do it as well as he 
dyed his hats ; this was done and paid for, and 
I then had a black waistcoat and breeches, but 
to our sorrow I soon found I had a black shirt, 
the waistcoat blacking everything that it came 
in contact with. I had a little money which was 
saved from my chickens and dandelion money, 
and sometimes half a pistareen for carrying a 
quarter of veal to Parson Jackson, and a little 
from my garden in which I had cultivated cives, 
roots, sage, balm, tansy and wormwood, all of 
which I had sold for me, except some of the 
wormwood, which stuck fast to me, and sticks 
to this day. 

By the terms of my apprenticeship I was to 
use and improve in the best manner I could in 
trade what little money I had scraped together 
and saved during my childhood, and under my 
brother's direction to trade in such articles as 
he did not deal in, and with this and what I 
could do by trading was to clothe myself; if 
insufficient, he was to make up the balance, and 
he was also to hear me recite Latin lessons, 
which I was to learn in the evenings, for we 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 81 

kept the store open till very late. I carried with 
me a sixty-gallon claret wine cask of vinegar 
which was put in the hold of the vessel, and I 
took a box of chocolate. Unfortunately, the 
hoops of this old wine cask were nailed in ancient 
days, and some of the nails had so rusted out that 
the vinegar leaked through the holes, and I lost 
a considerable part of it. Shortly after this I 
concluded to send an adventure to the West 
Indies, and I soon found, as I thought, a pretty 
good opportunity by a Mr. Briard, the first mate 
of the fast sailing ship Ceres, owned by Mr. 
Woodbury Langdon. My adventure was what 
we then called a "joe," being eight dollars, with 
instructions to Mr. Briard to invest it in oranges. 
I believe that the man had wholly forgotten 
that he ever received the money from me until 
his return, when I went on board for the pro- 
ceeds, and reminded him of it. He then said he 
did have it but had wholly forgotten it, but said 
he had on board a barrel of oranges and a pot 
of tamarinds which I could have. I was well 
pleased with my prospect, for I knew better 
than he did what I could do with it, though the 
whole could not have cost him more than three 
or four dollars; however, I was glad to get 
them. The oranges cost in the West Indies but 
two dollars, and he said, and I verily believe, 



82 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

that he took them on board to distribute among 
his friends on his return home without even 
thinking of my adventure; but it was thought 
best, on his saying that it only cost half the 
money and he would pay me the balance, to 
request him to keep the balance for his trouble. 
I did so, and we were both well satisfied. I 
opened my barrel of oranges and found them 
very sound, and I retailed them at from twenty 
to twenty-five cents each, principally at the latter 
price, and my tub of tamarinds I sold whole, 
thirty-six pounds at twenty cents a pound. The 
net proceeds of my adventure were over fifty 
dollars, with which I clothed myself for some 
time. I sent other adventures, but they netted 
me but little. 

At length my funds were exhausted, and my 
brother had to aid me in procuring clothes, 
which, indeed, were very few and cheap. He 
came to Boston and represented to my father 
the dullness of his business and the extremely 
hard times, and that in many stores the boys 
had to find not only their own clothes but 
their board also. My father, without saying any- 
thing to me on the subject, gave him one hun- 
dred dollars and charged it to me on account 
of my portion. I well knew he had a right 
to give me something or nothing, and though 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 83 

he had given John twice the portion he gave 
his other children by his extra education, which 
he had previously told him was extra and 
would be charged to him, I did not deny the 
right, though he had said to all that when of 
age he should give them one hundred pounds 
each. I boarded with Mrs. Wingate, of whom 
my brother hired the shop, and compounded 
the medicines, attended to the sales and delivery, 
and often prescribed for customers. From some 
disagreement with Mrs. Wingate, we quitted 
her shop after about a year. At this time Storer 
had returned and was in the firm, and we hired 
of General Whipple a large brick store pre- 
viously occupied by Spence and Sherburne, the 
one a Scotch merchant and the other a lawyer. 
They had done much business and on a large 
scale in this store, and I felt promoted. Our 
stock, both in quantity and variety, was very 
much increased, and on our sign was " Medicines 
and Groceries sold by Goddard and Storer." 
In addition to medicines we sold wine of many 
kinds, both green and dry fruit, a variety of 
teas (Bohea at nine shillings a pound), and 
kept iron and steel, and many kinds of dry 
goods, such as broadcloths, etc., too numerous 
to particularize, for our stock embraced every- 
thing generally kept for sale in the town. John 



84 NATHANIEL GODDARD' 

married on -the anniversary of my birth, the 
fifth of June, when I was sixteen years of age. 

As before stated, I prescribed in many common 
cases and such common medicines as I was 
perfectly acquainted with, bound up and dressed 
cuts and wounds, etc., so that the boys called 
me the "young doctor." What I most dreaded 
was pulverizing aloes and "sarsing" them to 
make hierapicra, the dust of which was very 
light and extremely bitter; it filled my throat, 
my eyes and nose, and penetrated my clothes 
so that it was extremely difficult to get rid of. 
The root, bark, etc., were much cheaper in the 
crude state than in the powder, therefore this 
was all done in the shop by me. Generally the 
apothecaries import in the pulverized state all 
that are so used, but not so with us. We used a 
very large iron mortar let into the top of a post 
that went through the floor to the bottom of 
the cellar, that it should not when in use shake 
the bottles from the shelves. The pestle weighed 
so exactly thirteen and a half pounds as to be 
used for a weight. 

About this time the boys of about my stand- 
ing agreed with a dancing master to open a 
school and wanted me to join them; but my 
brother felt that he was unable to pay the tui- 
tion of four dollars a quarter, and although I 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 85 

had a little money it was mortgaged towards 
finding my clothes, and what was deficient, as 
I have before said, was to be made up by him. 
I did not go to the school. 

After a long absence I was permitted to visit 
Boston, and came up with Captain Fernald, a 
cross, crabbed fellow, but I got safe to Boston 
and went to Brookline. My father had, I believe, 
then removed from his former place to near 
where my brother Benjamin now lives. 1 I 
made him a visit and got ready to go back 
again, but as it often happens that two of a 
trade cannot agree, the two captains, Partridge 
and Fernald, who were the only regular coast- 
ers between Portsmouth and Boston, and often 
came in collision with each other, came to 
open battle. Partridge flogged Fernald, being 
much the stouter man, but Fernald was not 
satisfied, and hired a negro to flog Partridge, 
which was accordingly done, and I believe both 
had their deserts. I went back to Portsmouth 
again, but my brother was then married, and 
about the time of the birth of his eldest son, 
John Heath, I made a visit to Brookline again 
never to return. 

I remained at home but a short time; Benja- 
min had left Brookline, having broken loose 

1 The old Gardner or Steams house, so-called. 



86 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

from the farming business, and gone to Boston 
to the store of Messrs. William and Josiah 
Brown, gentlemen of honor and high standing, 
and lived with the junior partner, Josiah Brown, 
until he was of age. He there learned that 
Captain Amasa Davis, of the firm of Davis 
and Boardman, who kept a store almost oppo- 
site Mr. Brown, and had done a great deal of 
business with the country people, wanted an ap- 
prentice, and thought it was a good place for 
me. I readily accepted it, and went there to 
complete my apprenticeship, living with Captain 
Davis, for this was his title, having been captain 
of a vessel once to the West Indies. Here I 
expected to spend my time in the store, learn to 
keep books, and know the qualities and value 
of all goods, and in short all the secrets of trade, 
but in this I was disappointed. I was called, 
among other things, to work on the wharf, where 
I piled boards from vessels with hired men. We 
considered piling forty thousand boards a fair 
day's work, or to put on sticks twenty thousand, 
which we always did when not interrupted by 
other business. I had more to do than the hired 
men, of course, always taking one end of the 
boards and planks, attending to the placing of 
the foundations and driving the ties, and over- 
seeing and laying full half of the sticks ; in addi- 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 87 

tion to this I had to take care of my master's 
horse, and feed, water, tackle and untackle him 
with chaise and saddle, to tend store while he 
ate dinner and breakfast, and to open and shut 
the store, etc. These innumerable things I did 
in addition to what was required of the day la- 
borer. I opened the shop before he came, and 
Boardman would be back before the laborers' 
hour for eating was finished, which gave me 
time to eat and take care of the horse. They 
also kept a timber yard, and I had to make a 
"slip" and to attend to drawing it up and piling 
it; in fact, we kept lumber of all kinds. Israel 
Mead was the agent, but my masters furnished 
the funds, bought the wood, and I, with one 
man, corded and carted it; I always did my 
half of cording and loading it, but never drove 
the team. It is true that our whole time was not 
taken up in piling and sticking the boards, tak- 
ing up rafts from the dock, handing up and 
piling the timber, and cording, loading and 
carting the wood, so that there were some inter- 
vals in which none of these were to be done when 
I was in the store where we kept some goods. 
All business was done by barter, no money 
except for a few things. If a man had pork or 
butter to sell and wanted logwood, copperas, 
chalk and a very little of cash articles, such as 



88 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

rum and sugar, we could generally trade with 
him. I became pretty expert in cutting up and 
barrelling the pork, and cutting out spareribs 
to sell to the butcher, the legs and hams for smok- 
ing, and the lard for trying, etc. It may be well 
to know the prices of many things sold at that 
time; green clear boards twenty-six shillings 
per thousand, merchantable ones twenty-one, 
refuse of each kind half price, cordwood before 
September, eight, and after, nine shillings per 
cord, firkin butter per pound, in barter, four and 
a half pence, for family use five pence, best hind 
quarter of beef thirteen shillings and six pence per 
cut, New England rum one and sixpence, and 
molasses a pistareen a gallon, pork by the hog 
two and a half per pound, all these paid for in 
barter. During sleighing time in winter I was 
posted at the door to call out "What have you 
got to sell?" and also to stop all the country- 
men returning out of town, so that if by chance 
they had anything unsold we might buy it low. 
They considered me handy with tools, therefore 
I had to cut and pack the pork and cooper the 
barrels; I also tried the lard. The end of the 
wharf washed away in a violent storm, and I 
was sent around the marshes to collect what I 
could of the timber and with it some additions 
of new, and I rebuilt the wharf with the help of 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 89 

laborers. I new laid Mr. Davis's cellar floor, 
barn stable floor, and built a rack for the horses ; 
and when the junior partner was married, I 
hewed, made and cut his gate-posts, making 
them from round logs, made his kneading- 
trough, bread-pail, clothes-horse, pudding-stick, 
etc., including various articles. In an old vault 
we found many thirteen-inch shells which were 
thrown in when the British left the town. 
They were found well charged, but not with 
Dupont powder that would burn; these might 
have been given to the laborers as a perquisite, 
but Mr. Davis did not give us one. 

We had also a brickyard on the "Neck." 
The city gave permission to make bricks there 
upon the condition that all the holes made by 
digging up clay should again be filled up by the 
party using the clay, but I believe it was never 
done. We sold here burnt bricks at three dollars 
per thousand, and soft ones at fifteen shillings; 
this business, with wood at eight dollars per cord, 
was not found profitable, and was abandoned 
after one year. 

The lumber business, as well as that in the 
store, became very dull and unprofitable, and 
the gentlemen in the south part of the town 
determined to go into navigation. They formed a 
company consisting of the following gentlemen 



90 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and I believe some others, to wit: Davis and 
Boardman, Caleb and Robert, Farrington and 
Williams, William and Josiah Brown, John 
Juliken, Peter Cunningham and Remember 
Preston. They purchased an old single -decked 
hermaphrodite brig of sixty tons and sent her 
to North Carolina for a cargo of naval stores, 
but on her return home she came near sinking, 
and the cause was not known until she got back. 
It was then found that she had an immense 
number of rats on board, and that they had 
gnawed a hole through the deck; and when the 
vessel was on the tack that brought that under 
water, she leaked so fast that she could not be 
kept free, and they were obliged to heave about 
on the other and pump her out. They finally 
found and stopped the hole and she arrived safe. 
They discharged the cargo and the brig was 
hauled into a small channel where there had 
formerly been a creek in which the water ran 
across the Neck, but this run of water being 
stopped by raising the street, it got filled with 
soft mud ; Deacon Davis sounded it out, put up 
stakes for a guide, and the brig was transported 
there, had a hole bored in her bottom, and she 
soon filled, having enough ballast to keep her 
down, ridding her of the rats, which swam for 
their lives in every direction. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 91 

The gentlemen soon sold this vessel; for not- 
withstanding she brought upwards of six hun- 
dred barrels of stores, and they sold the tar at 
a dollar and a quarter the barrel, they made a 
losing voyage. They still clubbed together, but 
I am not quite certain that Messrs. W. & J. 
Brown were concerned. The others purchased a 
brig called the " Juno," about a hundred and 
fifty tons, built on the western side of Boston, 
and it was so great an undertaking that they 
added to their concern William Marshall, a 
gentleman of undoubted wealth, and sent down 
to Cape Cod for a respectable and experienced 
captain by the name of Noah Stoddard. They 
loaded her principally with white oak staves 
and plank and sent her to London (Liverpool 
at that time being but a small slave-dealing place 
hardly worth notice), and on her return she called 
at the Isle of Wight and took in for return cargo 
a superior quality of salt, in large lumps nearly 
as large as a half barrel, very white and nice; 
this was not sold, but divided among the owners. 
This voyage also proved unprofitable, and as a 
part of the owners were unwilling to fit her out 
again, they concluded to sell her, which they did 
for about five hundred pounds. 

Thus closed this immense commercial com- 
pany; if it had continued much longer it must 



92 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

have proved fatal to the interests of that part of 
the town. 

Soon after this, I think about the year 1788, 
fourteen inhabitants and firms petitioned the 
town for the grant of 1400 feet of land, to com- 
mence at the fortification running southwest- 
wardly on both sides of the "Neck," then called 
Orange Street. The grant was made of 200 
feet deep on the westwardly side and on the east- 
wardly side to the channel, conditioned that the 
said petitioners should build a sea wall on the 
eastern side of the whole length, back it well 
with ballast, and fill it with mud and clay, so 
as effectually to stop out the tide, for previously 
to this at high tides they flowed quite across the 
Neck, put a picket fence the whole extent of the 
flats on the west side to break off the wind, make 
a post and rail fence on each side to the Roxbury 
line, and set out a row of elm or button-wood 
trees on both sides. All this was completed during 
my apprenticeship, Captain Davis being the 
agent for making the improvements. I remember 
the proprietors generally; Joshua Farrington, 
William Dall, William Bird, William Boardman, 
Amasa Davis, Ebenezer Dow, Benjamin Cobb, 
Joshua Weatherbee, Stephen Gove, Thomas 
Blake, John May, Robert Davis, Ephraim 
Thayer and Edward Blake. Upon the westerly 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 93 

side the lots were laid out with 100 feet front, 
but upon the easterly side of the street the south 
line was made at a right angle 100 feet from the 
street and then parallel with the first lot of the 
grant, and from this all lots were squared on the 
street and down 100 feet back, thence by the 
first line to low-water mark. My master being 
treasurer and agent, I may not forget this specu- 
lation on account of the labor it afforded me, 
and it is introduced preparatory to giving an 
account of my labors. 

Captain Davis soon got the wall all built by 
the perch of Roxbury pudding-stone, the con- 
tractors being Eben Seaver, since member of 
Congress, How and Cheney, and Ebenezer God- 
dard, at five shillings the perch, and it was 
backed with ballast from lighters. My master's 
lot was soon filled up; he had a gondola, hired 
a man, and I was captain of the gondola. We 
loaded and discharged it over the wall every day 
tide; sometimes I used the pickaxe and the man 
shovelled, sometimes he used the pickaxe and 
I shovelled, for it was all hard clay. In those 
days we had no iron shovels, but they were made 
of wood and shod with iron. It took about six 
hours to load ; we began on the bank at half -ebb 
tide and worked until about half-flood tide, when 
the tide drove us off. In order to accomplish the 



94 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

load, we were obliged to work as hard as we 
could, it being tide work, when we had perhaps 
an hour before the gondola would float into the 
wall. 

My master laid the foundation of his estate in 
the following manner. General Lincoln, a very 
respectable man and formerly a Major-General in 
the Continental Army, well known in the Revolu- 
tionary War, had retired to his farm in Hingham, 
and had invested his property in eastern lands 
in the county of Hancock, Maine, and was hard 
pressed for money even for daily expenses. Pass- 
ing by the store one morning on horseback, going 
into town, and seeing Captain Davis at the door, he 
stopped and wanted to borrow of him a hundred 
dollars only, which was readily lent to him. He felt 
most sensibly the favor and sought out means to 
repay it with interest. An insurrection or rebel- 
lion broke out in Massachusetts in the counties 
of Hampshire and Berkshire, headed by Daniel 
Shays, Luke Day, Adam Wheeler and Job 
Shattuck. It became necessary to send a force 
to quell it. Governor Bowdoin appointed Gen- 
eral Lincoln Commander, and now it was in his 
power to discharge the debt of gratitude. He 
called on Captain Davis and offered him the of- 
fice of Quartermaster- General in the expedition. 
Captain Davis told him that he knew nothing 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 95 

of the duty which would be required of him, and 
if he accepted he should disappoint the General 
and perhaps injure the service. "Oh," said 
General Lincoln, "I will take care of that; what 
you cannot do I will; there is a Major Brown 
in Roxbury, who has seen much service in that 
line; appoint him your deputy and get some 
other one for a deputy to do the correspondence, 
keep the accounts, etc.;" which he did. Major 
Brown was appointed and accepted as one, and 
Mr. Andrew Cunningham was appointed and 
accepted the other. All was then completed; 
Captain Davis now had the title of Colonel and 
also the pay; he put on his blue and buff uni- 
form and cocked hat with a monstrous cockade 
in it — there was no standing near it, its ap- 
pearance would make the stoutest heart tremble, 
— thus was he inducted into office, and this 
great army quelled the rebellion. General 
Lincoln became popular and was made Lieu- 
tenant-Governor and Captain of the Castle, and 
as such drew payment; for as Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor only he would have had none. By his 
influence Colonel Davis was kept in office; a 
Colonel's pay was something but not great; he 
had charge of the State ordnance magazines, 
and had nominally to visit the garrison at Castle 
Island, for which he must of course have a boat, 



96 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and with the -boat he must have men, etc.; all 
these were subjects of charge, though I believe 
the boat and men were afterwards dispensed with. 
I lived with him about six months after I was 
of age. He invited me to stay, saying that he 
would rather have me than anyone else and 
would give as much. I replied that I would stay 
until I could find some way to commence busi- 
ness for myself, and he might give me what he 
pleased. Finding that I was no nearer business 
by staying there, I concluded to go home and try 
to prevail on my father to assist me in some way, 
either by advancing me some capital or becoming 
security for me if I could hire it. The Colonel 
asked me what he should give me, and I told him 
what he pleased. He handed me $36.00, which 
was $6.00 a month, and asked me if I was satisfied 
with it. I told him my object was not simply 
wages but to look out for business, and I was 
satisfied with whatever he chose to give me. He 
then handed me $12.00 more, making $8.00 a 
month. I then felt rich, for I was able to pay 
money borrowed of my brother Benjamin to 
pay some small necessary expenses, for I came 
from Portsmouth destitute, as John had my all 
and something more in anticipation of my hun- 
dred pounds. My mother occasionally gave me 
a few shillings. The terms on which I went to 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 97 

live with Captain Davis were that he should find 
me victuals and clothes, but this did not seem to 
include buckles for shoes and knees, then gen- 
erally worn, sleeve buttons, pocket handkerchiefs, 
neck cloths, etc. ; these in four years amounted 
to nearly all my wages, but I was able to repay 
and did it. The most cruel part of my apprentice- 
ship was that they would never allow me but one 
clean shirt a week, and frequently, after taking 
up rafts and boards and timber, the former from 
the dock and wharf and the latter frequently 
rolling in the raft so as to throw me overboard, 
I was as wet as a drowned rat, and for some 
months in summer I seldom went to bed dry 
except on Sunday nights. This was cruel, but I 
had no remedy and no friend to apply to for 
redress. 

My father was desirous of having all his chil- 
dren brought up farmers. The first-born son was 
sent to college at Cambridge with the intention 
of making him a clergyman. Being disappointed 
in this, he was unwilling to have either of the 
others go to college without giving a positive 
promise that he would be a minister. When 
any one expressed a desire to follow any other 
business than farming, he would propose that of 
a carpenter, tanner, currier, or blacksmith, and 
thus in some measure he appeared to consult the 



98 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

inclination of' his children, but he never was 
willing that any one should be educated or in any 
way qualified to be a merchant. My father con- 
sented, it is true, that I might go to college con- 
ditioned that when I came out I would promise 
to be a minister, but this I could not do, for I 
was otherwise determined, and he would not 
permit me to follow my own inclination in choos- 
ing the kind of business I was desirous of pur- 
suing when of age. I believe my disposition was 
to be steady and honest, but not being able to 
pursue the kind of business most suited to my 
feelings, was never satisfied. I presume my father 
thought it a freak of childhood and was not will- 
ing to gratify me, believing that I was not quali- 
fied for trade or for anything but a farmer; and 
for that I know I never was and never will be 
qualified, as my constitution of body then was, 
and probably would have continued to be had I 
remained on the farm at home. 

Accordingly, after leaving Captain Davis, I 
went home to see if I could not in some manner 
induce him to do something by way of assist- 
ance to me. Brother Benjamin about this period 
had commenced business by the assistance of 
our father and Mr. John Lucas. Mr. William 
Livermore had previously kept in Mr. Lucas' 
store and had been assisted by him in stocking 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 99 

it; but partly through incapability, partly by neg- 
ligence, and perhaps more from the [dreadful 
distress of the times, he had become insolvent, 
and on examination by Mr. Lucas concluded to 
stop where he was. Mr. Lucas attached all the 
property and finally came into possession of it; 
I believe it was conveyed to him by appraisement 
and consisted mostly of remnants and of spirits 
and other West India goods. They lay for a time 
in the store, and I do not know whether Benja- 
min took the goods at the first appraisement or 
had them appraised again, but I believe he took 
them as Mr. Lucas received them from Liver- 
more. What sum my father furnished him I 
never knew, but believe a hundred pounds, as he 
had stated he would give to each. This happened 
a little after Daniel Shays' Rebellion. Soon after 
this business revived and these goods rose a little 
in value, which was favorable to Benjamin's in- 
terest. I mention these things to show that Benja- 
min had left home and my turn for aid had ar- 
rived if any was to be afforded. 

I heard repeatedly that my father had said that 
if I commenced business I should surely fail; 
these impressions were so strong in his mind that 
I thought he considered anything he should 
advance to me would be a total loss, and it 
was under these discouraging impressions that 

LOFC, 



100 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

he came forward to do anything. Times had 
been and continued to be hard, laborers had 
worked for twenty-five cents a day and found 
themselves, and my father stated that in assisting 
Samuel and Joseph it was rendered more easy 
by their taking many things he had on hand and 
could spare, and even these he did not advance 
until they were nearly twenty-two years of age. 
I told him these things generally would not be 
useful to me any further than what they would 
bring if sold; I could do nothing else with hay, 
carts, horses, oxen, plows, chains, potatoes, etc., 
but anything which he chose to give me would 
be thankfully received. 

He inquired particularly respecting my views, 
and I explained all to him as well as I could. 
I knew but little, only what I found out by the 
purchases of coasting captains, which amounted 
to this : they wanted everything but could pay 
for only the necessaries of life; some things they 
must have. He said he had but very little money 
and perhaps no credit, and he would not mortgage 
his farm to get it. I wanted him to let me have 
as was convenient for him to the amount of 
seventy pounds, to which my portion was re- 
duced by his having given John thirty pounds of 
it, in such articles as he could spare, and to be 
security for a hundred pounds more if it could 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 101 

be procured on his or my credit, and told him 
that I would not eat another's bread or spend 
another's property. My mother interceded for 
me, though she said she expected I would lose 
the whole, fail, and return home. I was without 
the education necessary for any business, they 
had no confidence in me, and so much was said 
that I had but little in myself, though I had 
determined to buy as cheap as I could and to 
sell nothing for less than it cost, and [was also 
determined to live on my own earnings and not 
another's. I was so anxious that it worried my 
mother much, and she would often say: "Don't 
be so impatient ; something will turn up by and 
by." "Perhaps so, ma'am," I would reply, "but 
not until I turn it up." 

I had determined to go eastward but knew 
little about it, and had no idea of the distances 
to different places or how they were situated. I 
had seen coasting-vessels from different ports, 
but it seemed as though the east was but one 
spot; I had no idea of the extent of the shore of 
our eastern country and expected to meet every- 
one that I had previously seen from there. But 
one thing I was correct in, and that was that 
the people wanted everything, that nothing came 
amiss, and that they had but little to pay for 
them, no credit, and none were worthy of it. The 



102 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

people would promise their first earnings, but 
if new supplies arrived which their fair words 
could not command, the first-fruits of their labor 
were given for them. 

My father at length exerted himself and suc- 
ceeded in hiring money (of some of his neighbors) 
on my notes with his security, of the following 
persons in Brookline : Mr. Benjamin White, thirty 
pounds; Mr. John Heath, thirty pounds; Mr. 
Dunn, thirty pounds; and Mrs. Ann White, thirty 
pounds. This was late in the winter and before 
the harbors of the eastern country were open. 
My father bought some Indian corn of Joseph, 
who then was on what was formerly called the 
Sewall farm, which previously to his hiring it 
was cultivated by Captain Campbell. He gave 
Joseph three shillings a bushel for his corn and 
I paid interest on this for one year, when my 
father paid for it out of my portion. He also 
put up some middle pieces of salt pork, a pot of 
hog's lard, a cask of vinegar, and some corn, so 
that in all hired and bought on credit I had fur- 
nished for me 170 pounds lawful money, equal 
to $566.66. This was my whole capital, and con- 
sidered by others as lost, and with this I pur- 
chased sundry articles of various persons. I 
bought some yellow corn at two and sevenpence 
per bushel, and had it put into fish barrels fit 



^ ^ ^ 

1 3 ■* * 




NATHANIEL GODDARD 103 

for packing alewives, white corn of Colonel Pat- 
ton at the foot of Roxbury Meeting-House Hill 
at two pistareens a bushel, and I also bought 
transiently some Indian meal, of Captain Nathan- 
iel Curtis one hogshead of best retailing molasses 
at a shilling and twopence halfpenny per gallon 
and one firkin prime family butter at five shil- 
lings a pound. A little previous to this time 
almost all goods had risen. I bought of Mr. 
Lowder an assortment of tinware, such as lamps, 
tin pots, pint dippers, gallon, two-quart and one- 
quart pots, teapots, etc., some pigtail tobacco 
at ten cents a pound, some yard-wide tow cloth 
at a shilling and sixpence a yard, a few barrels 
of New England rum at a shilling and sixpence 
a gallon, hard bread, some men's and women's 
shoes, Bohea tea, pewter, shot, musket -balls, 
some salt, a little cotton, some flax, boots, and a 
set of weights and scales, dry measures, scale 
beams, etc., etc. For my own use I bought of 
Elisha Chamberlain near Frog Lane a swingle- 
tow mattress and two blankets, and I left about 
sixty pounds in the hands of Benjamin, who 
agreed to invest it for me in such articles as I 
should send for by the return of the vessel. 1 

1 Articles of co-partnership between the brothers, dated April 1, 1790, 
(original still preserved) provide that "the business shall be transacted 
in the following manner, viz.: said Benjamin Goddard to keep a store at 
Boston and transact business under the firm of Benj n Goddard and said 



104 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

I had looked out for a vessel and found one, a 
sloop called the "Prudence," of Boston, captain 
William Young, mate John Rush, cook, steward, 
boy and all hands, an odd fellow by the name 
of House. Young was half Frenchman and half 
Yankee and lived in a wooden house built by 
himself on a small estate adjoining Hartt's Ship- 
yard, now Constitution Wharf ; on this estate the 
Constitution frigate was built. In order to load, 
the sloop was hauled round to Vernon's Wharf, 
now a part of Union Wharf lately owned by me ; 
here I put my goods on board, paid Vernon 
the wharfage and got ready to embark. The 
sloop was loaded principally by Edward H. 
Robbins, afterwards Lieutenant-Governor of 
Massachusetts. This gentleman bad a store at 
Machias, kept by a very worthy young man by 
the name of Harris, a brother to Rev. Thaddeus 
Harris late of Dorchester, and also had two 
townships of land in Passamaquoddy upon the 
river Schoodic. * One of these was called Robbins- 
town, nearly or exactly opposite St. Andrews. 
Here he had a saw-mill upon a little stream where 
he sawed lumber in the fall and spring, the wet 
seasons of the year, and near this he had another 

Nathaniel Goddard to keep a store in Passamaquoda (sic) and transact 
business under the firm of Nathaniel Goddard " with equal division of 
profits and losses. 

1 Plantation No. 4. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 105 

store which he supplied. This last was kept 
by Mr. Porter, brother of the late William Por- 
ter of this town and of Jonathan Porter of Med- 
ford, also deceased. 

The "Prudence "was a chestnut-wood vessel of 
about forty tons, built in Connecticut, about four 
and a half feet deep in the hold and built for 
shoal water. Her planks were but one and a 
half inches thick, and not a tree-nail in her. These 
planks were spiked to her timbers, but these 
things were not known at the time by any of 
the passengers, and we thought Captain Young 
a great coward. We sailed on the 28th day of 
March, 1789, for the eastward; Machias was to 
be our first port. My stores were principally 
hard ship-bread, very coarse, and a junk bottle 
of molasses, and I believe my mother put up a 
little cake. Our passengers were Nathaniel Rob- 
bins, brother to the Lieutenant-Governor, Theo- 
dore Lincoln, son of General Lincoln of Hing- 
ham, Nathaniel Hobart of Abington and son to 
the Squire of that town, and Phineas Bruce. 
Mr. Lincoln went to take charge of his father's 
township on "Dennie's River," Mr. Hobart's 
father gave him part of an adjoining town- 
ship, 1 and Mr. Robbins, assisted by his bro- 

1 Colonel Aaron Hobart was the original proprietor of plantation 
No. 10. 



106 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

ther, went trading: all had been down the year 
before. 

We had a tolerable time along, but at every 
squall of wind or when it freshened much Rush 
stood at the halyard and Young ordered him to 
let the mainsail run, for he was afraid to carry 
sail upon her. However, we got to Mount Desert 
in about four days. I had been very sick and per- 
suaded them to set me ashore on the island, for I 
could eat nothing on board. I took with me some 
hard bread, the bottle of molasses, and a tin pint 
pot; finding a run of water, I sat down by it, 
soaked my bread, mixed some molasses in the 
pint pot of water and made what they called 
"switchell." I ate and drank and was refreshed. 
Towards evening it was proposed to go on shore 
at Cranberry Island and get some hasty pudding 
and milk. I had earned nothing and hesitated 
about going, but at length I concluded to go, and 
we went to the house of a man named Sam Stan- 
ley. They made some Indian hasty pudding and 
furnished some milk, and all ate heartily but me ; 
I was a little sick from my passage down, and ev- 
erything was so dirty that I did not succeed very 
well and went on board again. At length the 
wind became fair and we proceeded on across 
Blue Hill Bay, entered Moose Pecky 1 Reach 

1 Mooseabec. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 107 

and canie to anchor near a kind of house for 
transient entertainment for sailors kept by a 
man by the name of Beals. 

We left as soon as wind and tide would per- 
mit, proceeded and arrived at Machias. The 
inhabitants were in almost a starving condi- 
tion. Most of the goods were consigned to Mr. 
Harris, Mr. Robbins's agent here. He had no 
occasion to take money into his store, as every 
man wanted and the price was no objection, 
— his pork that cost $8.00 per barrel was 
bought at $16.00, and beef that cost $6.00 was 
delivered as fast as possible at $12.00; his 
rule was to sell at 100% on the cost, and there 
was no lack of purchasers. Their promises were 
taken to pay in boards, the first that were sawed. 

The mills were owned in shares and divided 
by days ; one man would have the right for one 
day, another for two, and so on to three or four 
days, and when their turn came they sawed 
their own logs; but it often so happened that 
when the debtor's turn came round some fresh 
arrival of provisions would happen, and the 
first boards must go for more provisions or 
they could not saw. In this way the first cred- 
itor would not perhaps get his pay for a year, 
and each creditor must be present or have his 
man to seize the boards as soon as taken from 



108 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

the saw to put into the sluice, and to raft them 
at the end of the sluice ; it was seldom that collec- 
tions were made much faster than to pay the 
daily expenses. 

I was beset on every side for my goods at any 
price; they told me that was the mode of selling 
and that I never should sell my goods unless I 
did as others did. I told them that promises 
were but as wind, and that I must have some- 
thing substantial with which I could buy more 
goods or I would keep what I had; I did not 
sell a penny's worth. As soon as Harris's goods 
were landed we proceeded to " Quoddy, " leaving 
Mr. Bruce there. We landed at " West Quoddy " 
Sunday morning, went in at about high water and 
came to anchor waiting for flood-tide to go up 
the river. Mr. L. Frederick Delesdernier, 1 a 
Swiss, came on board the sloop and asked Cap- 
tain Young if he had any meal, rum, molasses, 
pigtail tobacco, etc. on board, and, being an- 
swered in the affirmative, wished to have some. 
Captain Young applied to me, but I told him it 
was Sunday and I could not trade on that day. 
He said that at young flood he must get under 
weigh and go up the river. Mr. Delesdernier 

1 Postmaster at the "Narrows" and later Collector of Customs. Mr. 
Albert Gallatin had passed a part of the preceding summer with 
Delesdernier, going from there to Machias, where he kept school dur- 
ing the following winter. N. G. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 109 

overheard and replied that "there was no Sun- 
day in five fathoms of water, the vessel was going 
up the river and they were starving to death." I 
told him that my weights, scales and measures 
were all packed up, that my molasses was not 
tapped, and further that I did not know the prices 
and was not prepared to sell. Mr. Delesdernier 
said they had but one price for these things there, 
that meal was always a dollar a bushel, molas- 
ses fifty cents a gallon, New England rum fifty 
cents a gallon, and pigtail tobacco twenty-five 
cents a pound, etc. I thought these pretty good 
prices, and he took molasses, rum and pigtail 
tobacco, tea, etc., to a considerable amount, pay- 
ing for all in silver dollars. An old Scotchman 
named Colin Campbell, having a brig lying 
in the cove near by on the British side, came 
on board for some stores for his vessel, she be- 
ing destitute of small stores, and inquired the 
prices, took a little meal and molasses, and chose 
to let his vessel depart as she was rather than give 
my prices. 

At low water we hove up our anchor and pro- 
ceeded up the river to Robbinstown, where Cap- 
tain Young had goods to land for Mr. E. H. 
Bobbins at his store, then kept by a young man 
named Porter, brother of William and Jonathan 
Porter, and the previous year by Nathaniel 



110 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Robbins. Mr". E. H. Robbins owned the town- 
ship, sawmill, etc. I could get no place to 
land mine, not even a log barn. At last Mr. 
John Brewer, brother to my brother Samuel's 
wife, and a trader here, said I might put them 
in his store until I got a place to remove them 
to, conditioned that I should not sell any of them 
while in his store. I thanked him, but I knew 
this would not answer my purpose; I must sell, 
but none of the traders wanted my goods there, 
for I had a better assortment than they and if I 
sold I should get what little money there was. 
Mr. Nathaniel Robbins, for he was the only 
passenger left, went with Mr. Brewer into a 
store, and in a short time came to me with Cap- 
tain Young and said there was an island about 
fifteen miles below where I should be likely to do 
better than at any other place in the Bay; it was 
called Moose Island and in the spring there was 
considerable business done there, fishermen re- 
sorting there through the summer, and that I 
could take such articles as they wanted and take 
their fish, oil, etc. in payment. Mr. Robbins 
said also that there was a store on the point of 
Moose Island that he thought I could hire to put 
my goods in, for it was never used in the winter, 
and that Captain Young would take my goods on 
deck and land them for me there. He added: 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 111 

"Here is a man, Captain Somes, who will row 
you down in a skiff reasonably." I turned to 
him and asked him what I must give him to 
take me down and bring me back again; he 
replied "a bushel of corn." I concluded it was 
not too much for him to find a skiff and row me 
thirty miles, and I agreed to give it to him. This 
Somes went from Cape Ann, having had to flee 
for his life; he was a refugee, and when living 
at Cape Ann had piloted the British fleet under 
Commodore Mowatt into Gloucester, which 
they took and almost destroyed, and he never 
dared to go back again. He rowed me down 
and I landed, went to see the owner of the 
store, and he went with me and showed it to me. 
It was a long building, say 36 feet long and 12 
feet wide, with two partitions making three rooms 
about 12 feet square. He asked me $12.00 a 
month for each room; it was a most enormous 
price, but he said he always let it at that price 
to fishermen who came down in little fishing- 
jiggers to put their stores, etc. in while fishing, 
and could not let me have it at less. I stated 
that they hired only while they could make their 
fare, but that I should probably want it some 
months and perhaps more than one room. He 
finally agreed to let me have one at $8.00 a 
month. I concluded to take it and returned to 



112 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Robbinstown. Captain Young hoisted a barrel 
of corn on deck which we found had lain in the 
water about eight or nine inches deep, and on 
examination found all my corn wet in the same 
manner; I presume Young knew it before, 
which made him so accommodating. However, 
Somes made no objection, took his bushel of 
half -wet corn, Young filled the hold of his ves- 
sel with boards, packed all my goods on deck, 
and carried them down to the Island, landing 
them in the twelve -foot store where I was to 
live and store my goods. Captain Young lent 
me a gun, a "king's arm;" I had powder and 
balls, and he lent me a pewter spoon and a jack- 
knife. I felt dull enough alone in the building 
with nothing to eat but hard bread and Indian 
meal; my cooking utensils were not very good, 
and I did not feel that I could afford to buy wood, 
though it was but a dollar a cord. 

My building was alone and not in sight of any 
other; it stood upon high-water mark fronting 
Harbor Delue 1 in Campello. The distance from 
the fireplace was so small and the rest of the 
room so occupied by goods not opened that I was 
obliged to open my door from the passageway to 
lay my mattress through in the night, half in the 
passageway and half in the goods room. I had 

1 DeLute. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 113 

no sheets or pillows but had two blankets; the 
weather was very cold and the sides of the build- 
ing very open, the cracks between the logs ad- 
mitting the snow, and although winter had 
passed we had many snow squalls when the 
snow blew all over my bed, these happening 
often until May. My mattress was very hard 
and full of lumps, and I had to keep my outside 
clothes on a great part of the time to keep me 
from perishing. I picked up driftwood about 
the shore, but being saturated with salt water 
it was hard to make it burn. I concluded to cook 
for myself, for I could not afford to pay board, 
and indeed if I could my stores would not have 
been safe alone in my opinion; for after the 
peace of 1783 all the disbanded British troops 
from New York and refugees were in that place 
and neighborhood, and we had the relics of the 
disbanded army of Indians and a cargo of con- 
victs from our friends the English. 

I established rules for my living and came to 
this resolution respecting my diet: I had been 
there but a few days before I bartered for some 
dry pollock fish and therefore had wherewithal to 
keep me from starvation; I had also coarse ship- 
bread, Bohea tea, molasses, Indian meal and fat 
pork. Sometimes a lean piece of salt pork could 
be had from my barrel, from which I retailed ; this 



114 NATHANIEL GODDAM) 

the fishermen "did not value and would not buy, 
as they wanted the fat to try out so as to have what 
they called "fish dip;" that is, they would boil 
the fish and potatoes and dip the fish into the 
fat and eat. I stinted myself to one dried pol- 
lock a fortnight, which was enough to relish my 
bread, and as it was an article of remittance to 
Boston, I was thus sparing of it. 

In the morning I made a fire, went about ten or 
twenty rods to a spring, got some water and filled 
my tin teapot with it and set it on the coals made 
of driftwood, the ashes of which looked like red 
iron rust. I boiled the water, put into it a little 
Bohea tea and boiled it again, poured it out into 
a flat tin pint pot and sweetened it a little with 
molasses. By this time the tin teapot and pint 
pot had made the tea almost as black as ink, but 
I cared not for this ; iron was wholesome, I knew 
what was the cause, and being a bit of an apo- 
thecary would not be poisoned. At noon, if I 
took anything, it was a little bit of pollock fish 
and hard bread, but generally I had but two 
meals a day. I made some hasty pudding for 
supper in this way, for I had no sieve: I filled 
my tin pint pot with water, set it on the coals and 
made the water boil, then took Indian meal in 
my hands, scattered it through between my fin- 
gers and stirred it about with my pewter spoon, 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 115 

but being always in a hurry I seldom had it half 
boiled; it tasted like what I used to feed my 
father's chickens and hogs with when I fed them, 
which we then called chicken meat. If I had 
earned anything by sales of goods during the 
day I used a little molasses upon it; if not, I fre- 
quently ate it without and it went down. Thus 
I ate, and drank cold water from the spring. 

I slept with a loaded musket by the side of my 
bed, expecting every night an attempt to rob 
me. I was alone in the building and out of sight 
of any other, so that I had to depend upon my- 
self and my gun. I escaped what generally 
comes under the head of robbery, but there was 
larceny enough while I was selling off my goods, 
my customers being refugees, disbanded Brit- 
ish soldiers, escaped gallows-men, Indians, etc. 
The first inquiry was "Do you trust any?" My 
answer was "No." "Then we cannot buy, for 
we can get no fish now ; we will give you in pay- 
ment the first fish we catch, or our lumber when 
we can get it down, or furs when they return 
from hunting, and I don't know but we must 
starve to death. What are you going to take in 
payment?" I replied, "I will take at its value 
anything but broken crockery-ware and broken 
glass bottles." They answered: "Well, then we 
may do." 



116 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

I had fixed prices for everything I took in 
payment and for every article of my goods, and 
was as firm as the laws of the Medes and Per- 
sians, except when they rose considerably or 
fell in price, when I was to sell or replenish 
my store; then and when I varied my prices it 
was for all. I never varied one cent from my 
asking prices for the seven years I was there; 
they were for everyone the same and for every 
article received in payment the same, so that the 
questions "Will you not give more?" or "Will 
you not sell for less?" were not asked. This 
saved a great deal of trouble and all were satis- 
fied and well pleased. I took in payment cod 
fish, dried or green, salt or fresh, and salted 
them myself, the same with pollock, haddock 
and herrings, fish oil, blubber, shingles, old 
wrought iron, cast iron, boards, timber, both 
pine and hard wood, clapboards, cedar shin- 
gles, muskets, swords and cutlasses, old pew- 
ter, lead, muskets and parts of muskets, some- 
times with and sometimes without locks, pistols, 
old copper and brass, furs of all kinds, hides and 
kip skins, moose hides and moose meat, feathers, 
wood, grindstones, butter, cheese, etc., meaning 
everything that offered. In the meantime I took 
a memorandum of everything inquired for that I 
had not on hand, and such as I had but which 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 117 

were not likely to last until I could get another 
supply. 

I soon chartered a "pink stern" schooner 1 
called the "Polly," John Maguire, Master, to 
go to Boston, carry up my remittance, and bring 
down goods to replenish the old and add to the 
new stock; but he made haste but slowly. I 
gave him $30.00 for the trip and he victualled 
and manned her. He generally took a junk of 
pork and some potatoes if he could get them, 
and seldom anything else but water, calculat- 
ing on catching fish on his passage. This ves- 
sel was, I think, of fourteen tons, and whenjshe 
returned it gave great general joy. If enough 
meat or other necessary articles did not come 
to supply the wants of all, I made a distribu- 
tion of the whole in proportion to their families, 
that no one should be destitute who had enough 
to pay for them with. 

It soon became rumored far and wide, from 
Moose Head Reach to the head of the* Bay of 
Fundy, that a trader had come down to Moose 
Island to stay the year round 2 who would take 
anything and everything for his goods and would 
furnish you with everything wanted; if he had it 

1 These boats are still to be seen on the Nova Scotia coast and are 
known as "pinkies." 

2 The census of 1790 shows the name of Nathaniel Goddard as an 
inhabitant of Township No. 8 (now Lubec and Eastport). 



118 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

not on hand that he would send for it by the first 
vessel. A multitude collected on the beach, fixing 
their triangles to hang their pots for cooking, for 
they both fried and boiled in the same pot. They 
came from Annapolis, Digby and various other 
ports across the Bay of Fundy and from its 
mouth, even from Cobogate, from St. John, 
Great and Little Dipper Harbors, Harbor de 
Lute and Harbor Lajong, Campobello, Macka- 
godawic, 1 Dickety quash, Schoodic, St. Andrews, 
Dennie's River, Cobscook, Grand Manan, Lit- 
tle Harbor, Machias, etc. These came on the 
beach and went out fishing in the daytime in 
their boats. 

As I was frequently obliged to go out of the 
store to weigh fish, measure oil, etc., there not 
being room within the store, I every time turned 
all out and locked the door until I returned, and 
it was so well understood that it caused me no 
trouble, for when a man said that he had some 
fish to be weighed or oil to be measured, the 
store was cleared in a minute. 

In a short time it became necessary for me to 
move my sleeping-place up aloft; I had slats 
nailed across the corner of the store to serve as 
a ladder to mount up through a scuttle under 
the roof, there being some loose boards laid 

1 Magaguadavic. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 119 

across the beams which served as a floor, the 
roof being very flat and rising about three or at 
most four feet above this floor. I bought a few 
feathers and sent to Boston for a tick and made 
a tolerable bed and bolster; this was put in the 
centre and we were obliged to creep in and 
undress sitting down. I say "we" because my 
brother Abijah at that time came down, and I 
was desirous that he should be made as com- 
fortable as possible; but be assured there was 
not much comfort there. The weather had grown 
warm, and being directly under the roof we suf- 
fered no more from the cold that season, nor in- 
deed until the next autumn. As soon as fish came 
I could get herring from the weirs, and amongst 
my old wrought iron I found the top or grate 
of an old-fashioned chafing-dish. This answered 
well for a gridiron. I soaked some small pieces 
of salt pork from the barrel I retailed from, 
and when freshened a little broiled upon my 
gridiron ; I also broiled my herrings upon it, 
[and so] we lived, moved and had a being. 

I frequently had occasion to go to St. John, 
about twenty leagues up the Bay, St. Andrews, 
Cobscook, Machias, etc., for various purposes, 
and when the winds and sea were so high that 
I could not go round Point Lapoe * as was often 

1 Lepreau. 



120 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

the case, for the sea ran as high and the danger 
was as great as it is said to be in the Bay of Bis- 
cay, I was obliged to haul the boat, a fourteen- 
foot open yawl, on the shore, make her fast, and 
go into the woods, break off spruce boughs to lay 
down for my bed for the night, and there wait 
for moderate weather to go round the Point. 

One day, early in the spring, and soon after 
I reached Moose Island, the day being very 
unpleasant, rainy, cold and windy, I espied 
a boat coming, about two miles distant, rising 
over and pitching down between the combing 
waves. It landed, and the passengers came into 
the store almost frozen and chilled through; 
some ran to the fire while others detained me 
to trade, amongst them Captain Charles Stor- 
row. I waited on the company, bought some 
old cast and wrought iron, some old pewter, an 
old gun, and a very handsome brass-barrelled 
horseman's pistol, very beautifully ornamented, 
which the captain had used in the West Indies 
when he was lieutenant of a company of horse; 
this made a convenient addition to my arma- 
ment. When the trade was over and they had 
bought all they could pay for, they departed. 

At this time I was very poor, but ventured to 
buy about half an acre of land bordering on the 
beach, and built a small store, about 30 by 20 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 121 

feet and about a third of a mile from mv first 
location. It was one and a half stories high, set 
on the beach at about high-water mark, and 
banked up toward the beach to keep out the 
frost. I got some bricks from Boston and had 
a tolerable chimney, partitioned the building 
off each side of the chimney, reserving at one 
end a strip about ten feet wide to live in and a 
chamber over it to sleep in, with a fireplace on 
each side, one in the store part and one in the 
house. I found an old man, Philip Stanton, 
who had been a mason tender before he came 
into that country, and he thought he could build 
the chimney if I would lay it out. I laid out the 
abutment for a foundation on the beach, and 
sprung an arch by means of a rough arch board 
that I made from one abutment to the other. 
Then Stanton exclaimed, "Odds fakins, rabbit 
my cat skin if I know how to build an ash hole 
or oven well." I told him I guessed we could 
do it, so when we got up to the hearth I under- 
took to lay out the ash hole and fireplace, built 
about five bricks high and much in the form 
of half an egg split lengthwise with the curved 
side upwards and the smaller side towards the 
room ; then I filled it with sand, crowned it over 
like the roof of an oven, and then arched it over 
with bricks laid in mortar. I continued on until 



122 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

I got thickness enough for the roof and the bot- 
tom of the oven, and then laid out the oven and 
built it much like the ash hole, but I had to make 
a flue to lead into the chimney to convey off the 
smoke; this done, I completed my oven. "Odds 
fakins, rabbit my cat skin if you have n't done 
it," said he again; "I can now finish it." 

In front of my store was an abutment to keep 
the sea from breaking against the house or store ; 
about forty feet distant from this I had built a 
pier or " cob" wharf about thirty feet square; for 
this I gave $30.00; the frame of my house cost 
$35.00. At high water at the end of the pier I 
had at common tides twelve feet of water; from 
this pier to the abutment I made a bridge about 
forty feet long with two string-pieces of spruce 
supported by posts underneath and boarded 
over on the top, so that a coasting vessel could 
come to the end of the wharf and discharge my 
goods or load with fish, as occasion required, 
all of which were passed over this bridge. I 
floored over the pier with spruce poles, laid in 
ballast sufficient to keep it from washing away, 
and smoothed it off with gravel. Above this pier 
and under the bridge I have seen a halibut that 
would weigh fully one hundred and fifty pounds, 
and upon this as well as upon other beaches 
there were one or two spells in the season when 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 123 

the pollock were running in close to the shore 
after shrimp. Men, women and children would 
wade into the water, perhaps not more than knee- 
deep, and with a tool they called a "pew," which 
had a prong something like a pitchfork with one 
prong, they would pitch them out on the beach 
in great quantities, and where they had no tool 
would throw them out with their hands, some- 
times getting thirty quintals before the pol- 
lock would quit the shore. I believe that the 
pollock, instead of being after shrimp, were after 
squid. They came ashore in this maimer: first 
the shrimp, then the herrings apparently after 
them, then the squid after the herrings, then 
tfte pollock after the squid, and fishermen, wo- 
men and children after the pollock. The shrimp 
or herring have no particular weapon of de- 
fense; the former can only save themselves by 
getting into shoal water, and they so often had 
to use this precaution that sometimes they were 
thrown ashore by the surf and billows, there 
to perish; especially would this happen with 
the ebbing of the tide, so that for perhaps a mile 
the beach would appear to be red with them. 
The squid were provided with a kind of de- 
fense, which they used very dexterously; when 
upon their guard and pursued by their enemy 
and nearly overtaken, they ejected a black sub- 



1U NATHANIEL GODDARD 

stance apparently into the eyes of their pursuers, 
which so clouded the water for a considerable 
space round them it could not be seen through; 
at that instant they would dart aside into clear 
water unperceived by their enemy, and escape. 

In front of my place and about two miles 
distant at the nearest point lay Campobello, 
and about three miles away Harbor de Lute, 
a good harbor except in a northwest wind. 
Campobello Island was about nine miles long 
and lay east of Moose Island, now Eastport; 
on its east side was the Bay of Fundy, its south- 
erly end made one side of West Quoddy Nar- 
rows, and round its northerly end was the great 
ship channel, Harbor La Long, Indrap and a 
number of other small islands. Nearly north 
of my store was Deer Island which reached 
nearly to St. iVndrews, and between this latter 
island and Eastport is the River Schoodic, now 
incorrectly called the St. Croix. 1 Opposite the 
southern end of Campobello, which makes one 
end of West Quoddy Narrows, lay Lubeck, mak- 
ing the other side of said Narrows. Between 
Eastport and Seward's Neck is Cobscook River 
running up to and around and through the falls; 
here the river parts and one branch runs up 
to Denniesville and is called Dennie's River. 

1 Appendix B. 



A MAP AND CHART OF PASSAMAQUODDY AND MACHIAS 
By Benjamin R. Jones, 1810 




A MAP AND CHART OF PASSAMAQUODDY AND MACHIAS 
By Benjamin R. Jones, 1810 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 125 

From these branches comes almost all the tim- 
ber that is shipped from Eastport and Cam- 
pobello Islands, there to be shipped as the par- 
ties may wish, to wit: that which goes from 
Campobello is English lumber and shipped in 
English vessels to English ports, but that landed 
on Moose Island or anywhere on the Ameri- 
can side may be shipped as American lumber 
or it may be rafted to the English side and 
shipped as English lumber. In the course of 
the first year my property had increased about 
a thousand dollars and my family to seven men. 
Immediately after moving into our store, being 
more busy than I usually was, I could not find 
time to cook, and hired at first an old Caro- 
linian named Moses Bruce, and afterwards a wo- 
man, and sometimes a little girl, to cook for us. 

The Indians were very troublesome, and al- 
though I treated them in all respects the same as 
the whites, sold to them as cheap and gave them 
as much for their skins and furs, yet they were 
always jealous and deceitful and I frequently 
had squabbles with them. I presume the tran- 
sient traders had cheated them all they could, 
which made it difficult for me to deal with them. 
Soon after I first landed an Indian came ashore 
in his canoe in the dead of the night on the ebb 
tide with his canoe pretty well loaded; he let 



126 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

it ground, came up to the door alongside of my 
bed and rapped. I asked, "Who 's there?" He 
said, "Indian wants some back alewitch (Eng- 
lish rum)." I opened the door, let him in and 
waited on him. He also wanted something else, 
enough to buy a musquash skin, and told me 
he would not pay me unless I would help him 
carry his canoe down the beach. I suspected 
that as soon as he got his canoe afloat he would 
pay me under the paddle and would attempt 
to paddle off; 1 was fully determined that he 
should not, but I went to help the creature down 
with his canoe, and surely he meant to paddle 
off. I told him he should not go and held on 
to the canoe; he found it in vain to try to get 
away, for I seized hold of his musquash skins 
and made my selection before I let him go. I 
had been well instructed how to treat tbem, 
never to flinch or give up a little, for if I did 
they would go all lengths. I had no further 
difficulty with any of them for some time. 
During the spring, however, I was at work mak- 
ing hand-barrows in my flake-yard — which 
was back of the store, and from it down to 
the water was a steep passageway — [and] had 
with me a drawing-knife, axe and auger, with 
materials for the purpose. A young Indian 
named Francis Joseph, Jr., son of their gover- 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 127 

nor, 1 came in and was guilty of conduct which he 
knew I had forbidden. I caught him by the col- 
lar, and with a pretty harsh jerk slung him down 
this passageway and over the abutment into the 
water. His uncle, Peter Joseph, came to me to 
resent it. I ordered him down the hill; he would 
not go, and I took the drawing-knife and with 
the back of it struck him pretty hard. He got 
mad and drew his knife to stab me ; I caught up 
the axe and gave him such a blow as soon sent 
him down the hill; this ended the scrape. 

In the course of the summer I was called away 
from the flake-yard one day by my brother Abi- 
jah, one of the most peaceable beings in the 
world. He sent up to let me know the store was 
full of folks, and there was a noisy, drunken In- 
dian so troublesome that he could not wait upon 
the customers, and wished me to come down. I 
went and took the rascal and pitched him out 
of the door down six or seven steps quite on to 
the wharf; afterwards, as I was standing in the 
doorway talking with some customers, among 
them Captain Josephus Bradford and a very pow- 
erful man from Dennie's River named Bela Stod- 
dard, the Indian crept along unperceived, seized 

1 Francis Joseph Neptune, commonly called Governor Francis, was 
of material aid to the American cause during the Revolutionary War, in 
keeping the Indians friendly and thereby saving the eastern settlements 
to the United States. — Kilby's History of Passamaquoddy and Eastport. 



128 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

hold of my legs, tripped me up and pulled me 
down the steps. Captain Bradford saw it, struck 
him and knocked him nearly a rod; Bela Stod- 
dard then struck him and knocked him back 
again, and between them they played shuttle- 
cock with him and bruised him almost to a 
pumice. A half-breed French and Indian begged 
for his life, and they let him take him away. 

One other scene I had with a party of seven or 
eight, I don't know but more. They went into the 
room where we lived, and the cook sent to me 
when I was in the flake-yard and said that the 
Indians were stealing everything in the house. 
I thought it probable that she was more alarmed 
than she need be, and sent down Oliver Shead * 
to drive them out; but he came back saying they 
would not go and were stealing everything. I 
broke a spruce stick in two and took the butt 
end, about three and a half feet long, and went 
down somewhat in a hurry. I did not stop to 
ask questions. They saw me coming and began 
to decamp, and I began to belabor them as hard 
as I could strike, anywhere that I could hit them. 
I knocked some of them over the abutment, 
where they fell on to the beach, others I pounded 
until they begged heartily. I made them restore 

1 A Brookline boy employed by Mr. Goddard and later of the firm 
of Hayden and Shead, succeeding to the business in Passamaquoddy. 
He was Eastport's first representative to the General Court (1807). 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 129 

all they had taken, as we supposed, but I found 
in the end that they carried off one small article. 
On returning to the door of the store I found 
one of the Indians had run and taken his gun 
from the canoe. He was a half-drunken fellow 
and raised his gun to take sight and fire at me, 
but a squaw near by ran and caught hold of 
the gun and pulled it aside, so that he had not 
time to fire. If he had, as I was within five rods, 
he certainly would have killed me. Thus ended 
this, the last battle I ever had with them, and I 
taught them better than to trouble me again. I 
always made them mind, never gave up to them, 
always dealt with them on the same terms as with 
white customers and taught them to respect me. 

After the first year I went into co-partnership 
with brother Benjamin. I think it was this or the 
next year that Captain McGuire was cast away in 
the schooner "Polly" on Cape Small Point, near 
Portland, in Casco Bay, loaded wholly on our ac- 
count. We had no insurance and lost what was 
on board not saved. We gave McGuire $30.00 for 
this trip, and he chartered another vessel to bring 
down what was saved, and on this we had to pay a 
second freight. McGuire married the daughter of 
a man named Nat Clark, who had an old Jebacco 1 
boat, pink stern, and he told McGuire he would 

1 "Chebacco"? 



130 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

give him thejboat provided he would get her re- 
paired. He had nothing to do it with ; we had 
no way to get our goods up or down, and I 
agreed to advance something to assist him. He 
found an old carpenter by the name of Samuel 
Oakes who told him that he had better make a 
square-sterned vessel, and this he did with the 
assistance of two carpenters from Campobello 
Island, and her stern was so spread that she 
was shaped like an old-fashioned heater, an 
irregular triangle. I never knew which end 
foremost she would sail best, but they masted 
her putting the narrow end foremost, and so she 
continued to be used. I loaded her with such 
goods as I had to make remittance with, hav- 
ing been collecting some all winter, and she 
made her voyage and returned safe. 

Some time afterwards brother Benjamin sold 
a cargo of grindstones to Colonel John May, de- 
liverable at Portland, where Colonel May then 
lived, and sent down to me to ship them, which 
I did. This schooner had no register but sailed 
under a coasting license, and therefore was not 
obliged to enter and clear at the Custom House, 
unless she had on board foreign goods to the 
amount of $500.00, and the grindstones did not 
amount to this sum. She had got nearly up to 
Portland when she fell in with a U. S. Reve- 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 131 

nue cutter, Captain John Foster Williams, was 
boarded, her papers examined, and was then 
permitted to pass. But John Lucas, who was 
on board and had formerly had a difficulty with 
Colonel May, stated to Captain Williams that 
she had no clearance and perhaps might have 
goods to smuggle. This induced Captain Wil- 
liams to board her again and send her up to 
Boston for trial; she was examined and cleared 
and sailed again for Portland, discharged and 
came again to Boston. The "Abigail," for such 
was her name, was found not to have $500.00 
on board, and we bore the loss not of detention 
only and the expense, but were very much in 
want of the goods for return cargo. 

After staying in Quoddy just seven years from 
the day I first left Boston, I left it for Boston in 
the schooner Dolphin, leaving one of the pleasant- 
est places I ever saw. Being so near the Bay of 
Fundy the breezes from the water of the Bay so 
tempered the heat of summer as to make it com- 
fortable, and the cold winds of winter were much 
softened by the breezes of the Bay, whose waters 
were warmed bv the Gulf Stream. The eastern 
and western passages into the Bay were both 
in sight from my place, and there were several 
islands scattered about. On the right and left 
were pleasant rivers, up one of which, straight 



132 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and extended as far as the eye could reach, we 
could see out both passages into the Bay. 

The grampus were thick, pitching out of the 
water, spouting, and then plunging again; codfish 
and pollock directly before our door between us 
and Campobello Island, where at the fishing sea- 
son you might count a hundred boats at once haul- 
ing them in, and halibut of a very large size ran 
quite into shoal water. Often we saw schools 
of black fish, sometimes threshers and often an 
immense number of porpoises and seals; the 
Indians killed the porpoises for their oil and 
the seals for the oil and skins. Fishermen built 
weirs across the cove by driving down stakes 
at low-water mark, reaching up perhaps to the 
top of the water at half flood, and then bushes 
woven in from one stake to another so thick that 
the herring could not get through, and they 
would sometimes take what they estimated at 
three hundred barrels. A few years after I went 
there these weirs were suffered to be destroyed 
and were not repaired from the circumstance of 
one fisherman finding out accidentally the fol- 
lowing secret: watching the squid on the beach, 
and at the same time making a fire under his 
triangle to cook, he perceived the herrings in 
immense quantities run almost on shore so that 
with a dip-net he could get enough bait while the 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 133 

other fishermen had none. This plan was after- 
wards greatly improved upon by cutting sticks, 
splitting open the end and inserting a quantity 
of white birch bark, then resting one end over 
the bow of the boat, and when they saw the 
school of herrings, pushing the boat off from 
the shore and setting fire to the bark. The fish 
would come around the fire and close to the sur- 
face of the water, and in this way they would 
load a large boat as fast as they could dip them 
in, say at least a pailful at a dip. I bought, sold 
and packed many hundred barrels, as many bar- 
rels as I could get to fill, giving for them fresh 
half a dollar per barrel, measured alive, one bar- 
rel and a half for a barrel, as they shrank by 
salting and were packed closer. 

As before stated, I left Passamaquoddy in the 
schooner Dolphin, Zenas Morton, Master, and ar- 
rived safe after a passage of twenty days, leaving 
the store and business with Colonel Lemuel 
Trescott, 1 who had come down from his place in 
Orange town a year before to qualify himself for 
taking charge of it, and to have one-half the pro- 
fits. He was a part of the noblest work of God, an 
honest man. 

1 Born in Massachusetts in 1751; a soldier of the Revolution, serving 
under Lafayette. He became first Town Treasurer of Eastport on its 
incorporation in 1798, and Collector of Customs for the district in 1811, 
succeeding Mr. Delesdernier. — Kilby's History. 



134 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

This was in March, 1796. I was then in my 
twenty-ninth year, an old bachelor, awkward to an 
extreme, and unacquainted with all decent soci- 
ety, having been buried in the prime of life where 
no society existed. I never made a visit there to 
the house of one person either in the daytime or 
evening for seven years, and was pretty well quali- 
fied to be a hermit. It is true that within twenty or 
thirty miles there were a few persons who were 
civilized, but it was by chance only that I saw 
one of them and never came in contact with 
them except in business. 

Unfitted for social companionship and too old 
to become young again, I have continued along 
my journey of life subject to many mortifications. 
Two things I have endeavored to do, to wit: to 
be just in my dealings and punctual in all tilings. 
But rigid justice and punctuality, T have observed, 
do not accord with the feelings of all in the pre- 
sent age, and I regret it. I will venture to re- 
cord one thing, that no man ever was or will be 
a popular man who goes forward in one rigid 
course of truth and justice amongst all, friends 
or enemies, and disguises nothing or equivo- 
cates. It may be said that it is not proper or 
necessary to tell the whole truth, but I do not 
agree to this. It may not be proper to tell all 
that one thinks. If I have been of use to this 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 135 

world or to individuals in it, either by precept 
or example, I rejoice in it and claim nothing for 
it; if I have been unprofitable or have injured 
anyone I am very sorry for it. I had in early life 
a kind and affectionate mother and sister (Han- 
nah) and I have yet living a kind brother 1 who 
came forward and relieved me in my distress. 
Perhaps there are many who would, if they 
could, have aided me but had not the ability. 
A kind word goes far toward smoothing this 
rugged road of life if there do not happen to 
come two harsh ones after it. 



The manuscript narrative ends here. Sup- 
plementing the portions relating to the busi- 
ness at Passamaquoddy are preserved two 
"waste" books, covering the period from March, 
1792, to June, 1794, and the final settlement of 
account (original papers) on the dissolution of 
the partnership in 1796. Among many items 
which serve to illustrate the general nature of 
the business are several which seem to show 
that the brothers owned at that time in whole 
or in part the two trading schooners "Betsy" 
and "Lucy." One such item charges to Benja- 
min Goddard "one half of Schooner Lucy and 

1 Benjamin. 



136 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

appurtenances £%%5, and one half of Schooner 
Lucy's cargo to Guadeloup (sic) ,£887 2" 9"," 
showing an extended foreign venture for the 
little craft, and outcome of a single voyage 
amounting to nearly four times the estimated 
value of the vessel. Their trade was, however, 
for the most part coastwise between Boston and 
Passamaquoddy. 

That Nathaniel Goddard was held in esteem 
by his neighbors of Passamaquoddy, and that 
he was a man of influence among them, is shown 
by the following letter accompanying a petition 
to the Legislature of Massachusetts, Maine be- 
ing at the time a part of that State. 

Passamaquadt, May 26, 1797. 

Mr. Nathaniel Goddard. 
Sir: — 
Confident as we are from personal knowledge, 
as well publick fame, of your Integrity and good 
wishes in General for our Common Country, 
particuler the Infant settlement of Plantation 
No. 8 in the Bay of Passamaquady, We have 
taken the liberty in behalf of the Inhabitants, 
To nominate and appoint you as agent to ob- 
tain Incorporation for this District. 1 For this 

1 Plantation No. 8 was incorporated into a town by the name of East- 
port February 24, 1798, and included Lubec, the latter set off as a 
separate town in 1811. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 137 

purpose, you have herewith a Petition to the 
General Court, accompany'd with the Resolves 
of the Plantation, authenticating the same. 

Although we doubt not, that your Judgement 
and experience, and your being on the spot, will 
better direct y r proceedings (to which we ulti- 
mately refer) than anything we can dictate, at 
so great a distance; Still it may not be improper, 
so far as we know to point out some hints and 
such Steps as may appear to us usefull to expi- 
date and accomplish the bussiness, submiting the 
whole to your disposal. 

We recommend in the first place, to make 
known the bussiness to some of your acquaint- 
ence, and persons of influence in the Senate and 
House, and Engage their Interest and atten- 
tion in the progress. They will be the best 
Judges, to which House it is to be presented 
first. On the reading the Petition by the Speaker, 
a Committee will be appointed for investiga- 
tion. We recommend that you endeavour such 
persons be chosen in both Houses, who will 
early attend, and make report expeditary. It 
must be observed in the whole of this, that the 
Committee and others concerned in bringing 
it to an Issue, must be constantly attended and 
called upon — to put Them in remembrance — 
For often without this Spurr, things are put of 



138 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

to the last, consequently are liable to be thrown 
by, to another Session. 

As the General Court does not like long and 
prolix Epistles, on such small matters, It is recom- 
mended, that only the Petition be presented at 
first, but when you attend the Committee (which 
must not be neglected a moment, when they are 
ready) The votes of the Town will be necessary 
to lay before them, with such other vouchers and 
documents verbally as may occur to you. You 
will please under this Head add. The low and in- 
digent state of the people — The great difficultys, 
they labour under in this infant settlement — 
The expences and burthens they are subjected to 
by being so near the lines — The encroachments 
and insults they at times experience, and the 
trouble and expence in loss of time &c. which 
naturally falls to their lott, by adhearing to their 
allegiance as Citizens of the Commonwealth. 

An objection may arise, in which it may be 
suggested by some, that the inhabitants are 
benefited, by the adjacency to the British settle- 
ments, In this you must be a competant Judge 
yourself — That it opperates very different — 
That the inhabitants in general (very few ex- 
cepted, if any) have not any intercourse or con- 
nection in trade or otherways with them, but 
accidently and that trifling. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 139 

Upon the whole nothing could have induced 
us to apply for incorporation but mere neces- 
sity, That regulation and order might be estab- 
lished, and suitable officers appointed to put 
the Laws in execution, not as it immediatly 
concerns our own internal peace, but to ward 
against such evils, we are exposed to, by the in- 
tervention & designs of Strangers. — Our inabil- 
ity to discharge the smallest publick expence, 
or even necessary contracts among ourselves, 
with certainty and punctuality; demonstrates 
how small a claim we have to sett up for our- 
selves, or attempt that rank in the Common- 
wealth which might subject us to expence. 

We are at a loss, what to say respecting a com- 
pensation for y r trouble. Our wish is, and it is 
our determination to use every endeavour to 
make satisfaction, But we dare not promise, 
How, or when it is to be done — You are no 
stranger, to the state of our finances, nor the 
obstructions which preponderates, in actuating 
the minds of credulous and ignorant persons, who 
are unacquainted with those rules and regula- 
tions which gives peace and security to society — 
whose minds are often impress'd with Chymar- 
ical suspicions, inflamed and fanned by design- 
ing interlopers and vagrants, to which our sit- 
uation so much exposes us. But Sir the time 



140 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

we hope is- fast approaching, when everyone 
will se for himself through a proper medium, 
& a publick spirit be dissiminated through the 
whole, in a word That To Do Justice, Love 
mercy, and to walk Humbly with our God will 
be the Standard and rule of this Little Com- 
munity — 

With Sentiments of friendship and Esteem We 
are 

Yr most obdt Hble Servts 1 

P. S. Request the g AM TUTTLE 

patronage of Mr. 

Bobbins the Speaker, JOHN BuRGIN 

who well knows our t A t t a -vr 

situation. 

It does not appear what action, if any, 2 was 
taken by Mr. Goddard upon this petition, but 
it is known that the inhabitants of Passama- 
quoddy were later desirous of recognizing his 
services to the settlement by giving his name 
to the newly incorporated town. 

That his business relations with his old neigh- 
bors did not cease is shown by a letter to his 
brothers John and Jonathan, dated April 9, 
1799, in which he expresses his intention of 
shipping to Passamaquoddy a consignment of 
"tow-cloth" to be bought and baled in Ports- 

1 The original letter is in the possession of Miss Mary G. McMurtrie. 

2 At a town meeting held March 11, 1799, Mr. Goddard received a 
vote of thanks for his services. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 141 

mouth, and by the fact that he retained the 
ownership of one hundred acres of land on 
"Seaward's Neck," allusion to which is made 
in the settlement of the partnership accounts, 
and later in his correspondence. 

The year after arriving in Boston from Pas- 
samaquoddy, to wit 1797, on the second day of 
May, Nathaniel Goddard was married in Bos- 
ton to Lucretia Dana, daughter of Amariah 1 
and Dorothy Dana of Amherst, Mass., born 
October 9, 1773, and living since her early child- 
hood in Boston in the family of her uncle, Col- 
onel John May. 2 Her own family had formerly 
lived in Pomfret, Connecticut; the parents were 
in moderate circumstances, and there were many 
children; accordingly when Colonel May pro- 
posed that one of these should become a mem- 
ber of his family circle, it was willingly acceded to, 
Lucretia was the one chosen, and her life there- 
after until her marriage was happily passed in 
the home of her uncle and aunt in Boston. Of 
their kindness and that of their family she was 
always deeply sensible, and the affection on both 
sides was lasting and strong. Mrs. Goddard 

1 Amariah Dana, born May 20, 1738, died Oct. 29, 1830, a soldier of 
the Revolution, was with Ethan Allen at the taking of Ticonderoga. 

2 The invitation to his brothers John and Jonathan is dated April 25th. 
"... As much as my own it is Col May's particular request that I make 
no delay in giving you Information; the Brothers, Sisters, & particular 
Friends of the Family's (only) will be present." 



142 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

was a woman of fine personal presence, having 
a distinguished face and figure, and possessing 
traits of mind and character which peculiarly 
endeared her to the circle in which she moved. 
Her unselfish devotion to her husband during 
fifty-six years of married life, and to her family 
of eleven 1 children, all of whom lived to ma- 
turity, with the large hospitality for which she 
was so well known, confined her almost exclu- 
sively to the duties of the home, where was the 
peculiar sphere of the woman of those days, 
and in which she notably excelled. Her memory 
was and is tenderly revered by all who were 
privileged to know her during her long and use- 
ful life. 

Colonel May lived in Orange Street, that 
part of the present Washington Street from 
Essex Street to the old British fortifications 
at Dover Street, and later in Ann Street at the 
North End, and was a man well known in pub- 
lic and military life. 2 

In his early married life Nathaniel Goddard 

1 Two other children were born, but died in infancy. 

2 Colonel John May, born November 24, 1748, commanded the 
First or "Boston" regiment of militia, served under the Comte de 
Rochambeau in Rhode Island, and is believed to have been one of the 
"Tea Party" at Griffin's Wharf. In 1789 he made a journey on horse- 
back to the Muskingum Valley in the "Ohio Country" and there built 
the first house of what is now the city of Marietta. He was a selectman 
of Boston from 1804 to 1812, and an earnest advocate of a marginal road 
from the North End to Roxbury. Through the efforts of his son, Henry 



LUCRETIA (DANA) GODDARD, WIFE OF NATHANIEL 
GODDARD 

From a miniature in the possession of Mrs. Henry S. Bush and 
Miss Mary G. McMurtrie 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 143 

lived at No. 12 Orange Street, nearly opposite 
the present Boston Female Asylum. In 1802, 
however, he bought of John Langdon Sullivan 
land at the southwest corner of Summer and 
Kingston Streets, one hundred feet on King- 
ston and about ninety-one on Summer. On 
this, in 1807, he built the house that was to be his 
home for nearly forty years. To this original prop- 
erty he subsequently added by purchase from 
Sullivan (March 30, 1810), from William Til- 
den and heirs of Ralph Inman (May 10 and 11, 
1810), and from the estate of Ebenezer White 
(August 28, 1820, this parcel including a dwelling 
house, "hall," and other buildings) all the land 
on Kingston Street southerly to Pond Street 
(formerly Rowe's Lane and now Bedford Street), 
bounded on the south and west by Bedford 
Street and by land of John Rowe, Speakman, 
Thomas Thompson and David Ellis. The price 
paid for the entire property (four lots) was 
$21,414.51. The exact area cannot be determined 
from the description, but the original purchase 
was at an average price of about fifty cents 
and the later of sixty-three cents per square 
foot. 

The house stood at the northwesterly corner of 

K. May, and others, this effort ultimately took partial shape in the 
building of Commercial Street. Colonel May died July 16, 1812. 



144 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

the property-next to that of David Ellis, Esq., 
room being left between the two houses suffi- 
cient for a driveway to the stable adjoining and 
in the rear of the house. It was of three stories 
in height, built of light-colored Philadelphia 
brick, and stood on a high bank, perhaps twelve 
or fifteen feet back from Summer Street, with a 
grass plot in front. On either side of the entrance 
from the street stood a large horse-chestnut 
tree, and at the top of the steps, just before the 
door, two pairs of pillars, around which twined 
monthly honeysuckles which blossomed until the 
cold weather came. 

Within on either side of the front door was a 
large parlor, that on the left being the family liv- 
ing-room, and from the hall between a circular 
stairway led to the first floor of chambers, but 
extended no further, access to the other sleeping- 
rooms being from the back entry. Some of the 
furniture of the other parlor, a room not so com- 
monly used by the family, hand-painted in white 
and gold, and a teaset of old English "Spode" 
ware are still in the possession of his daughter, 
Louisa May Goddard. 

Between the house and Kingston Street to the 
east was the "grass garden" so-called, and to the 
south of this on Kingston Street the "vegetable 
garden" and "pasture." The lot at the corner 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 145 

of Bedford Street was rented to a Mr. Bowen 
for a slate-yard, the largest at that time in Bos- 
ton, and next to this was a small one-story wooden 
building formerly occupied as a chapel and for 
meetings and sundry uses, serving at one time the 
purpose of a "creche," where small children were 
left to be cared for while the mothers were at 
work. This building was afterwards fitted up by 
Mr. Goddard for a private school for boys, 1 which 
was taught here by his son-in-law, Henry W. 
Pickering, during the years 1835 to 1837. 

He also built, about this time, a second and 
larger stable to the south of the house, and the 
old stable was thereafter used for other purposes, 
a workbench being fitted up there for his use 
where he did odd bits of work in which he had 
considerable skill — he used to say that he wished 
he had learned a trade, such as shoemaking, with 
which he might occupy himself at home in the 
evenings — and a high desk in the " barn-cham- 
ber, " at which he used to write on stormy days or 
when for any reason he did not go to the count- 
ing-room, one of his clerks coming to the house 
at these times to assist him. 

In front of the new stable in the yard facing 
Kingston Street stood three large English walnut 
trees; in the garden were grown the common 

1 Called the "Bedford Hall School." 



146 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

early spring vegetables, and under date of May 5, 
1842, appears the memorandum: "Planted two 
rows of beans and two rows of corn this day." 
He was in the habit of saying that he regarded his 
garden as "better than doctors' bills," while Miss 
Hannah Wheaton, an out-of-town friend of the 
family, was accustomed to testify to the excel- 
lence of its products by an annual visit "for the 
string-beans, which she could not get so good in 
the country." 

The Kingston Street side of the property was 
enclosed by a wooden fence painted green, this 
being also a favorite color with him in the paint- 
ing of his vessels, 1 though the upper and exposed 
parts of these were commonly of a cream tint 
as " more likely to throw off the heat and pre- 
serve the wood." 

Mr. Goddard's neighbors in Summer Street at 
this time w T ere David Ellis, in the house next 
above his own, and at the corner of Chauncy 
Place (now Chauncy Street) Dr. James Jackson; 
beyond Chauncy Place to the west, Rev. Dr. 
Frothingham, Dr. Jacob Bigelow, Henry Cabot, 
and Samuel P. Gardner, whose house was where 
Hovey's store now stands ; below Kingston, at the 
corner, William R. (and later Horace) Gray, and 

1 The coming of the "Green Dragon" into Canton referred to the ar- 
rival of one of his ships. Recollections of Thomas Wigglesworth, Esq. 



SUMMER STREET HOME OF NATHANIEL GODDARD 

From a pencil sketch by Henry Weld Fuller, Esq. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 147 

of Summer Street, below Winthrop Place, lived 
next to him John Welles. On the opposite side 
Henry Gassett and William Sturgis, and between 
Winthrop Place and Otis Place, the Rev. Alex- 
ander Young, whose church was across the street 
on "Church Green," Daniel Webster, 1 Israel 
Thorndike 2 and John C. Gray. Between Otis 
Place and Arch Street were the houses of George 
Blake, Edward Everett and John Tappan; and 
above Arch Street, of Benjamin Bussey, occupied 
by his daughter Mrs. Davis, and William Pratt. 
The family life was quiet and domestic, with 
regular hours, as was the habit of those days. 
Mr. Goddard was himself an early riser, often 
working in his garden before breakfast, pruning 
the fruit trees or trimming the grapevines and 
training them over a trellis. 3 After breakfast and 
on his way to the counting-room he did his 
marketing at the Quincy Market, principally 
with Messrs. J. & H. Bird (who also supplied 
his ships with fresh meats), his servant Michael 

1 Here Mr. Webster entertained Lafayette on his visit to Boston in 
1824, a door being opened between his house and that of Mr. Thorndike 
adjoining, for the better accommodation of the company. Henrietta 
Goddard, then a young girl of eighteen, attended this reception, and well 
remembered Lafayette, standing by Mr. Webster's side and shaking 
hands with the guests as they arrived and were presented. 

2 In 1820 Nathaniel Goddard paid Israel Thorndike $350 as his share 
of the benefit from the widening of Otis Place and Summer Street. 

3 In later years and after leaving Summer Street he bought a small 
piece of land in Brighton, where he might pursue and enjoy this occupation. 



148 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Larkin 1 following with a large basket to take 
home the purchases, none of which were de- 
livered by the markets at that time. He was 
always at his counting-room by nine o'clock or 
earlier, remaining there until one, when in com- 
mon with other merchants he went "on Change." 
This was in State Street opposite the present 
Exchange Building, and here on the sidewalk 
and half way across the street might be seen at 
this hour familiar figures, such as William 
Sturgis and John Bryant, Josiah Bradlee, Sam- 
uel and Nathan Appleton, Captain Ben Rich, 
William Appleton, Robert G. Shaw, Phineas 
Upham, Thomas B. Curtis, Daniel C. Bacon, 
and Robert Hooper. On rainy days these gen- 
tlemen frequented certain insurance offices in 
the neighborhood, such as the "American," its 
rival, the "Suffolk," at the corner of State and 
Congress Streets (known as the "Ruffled Shirt" 
office) and the "Merchants'," of which Mr. 
Goddard was one of the organizers. From here 
he went home to dinner at two o'clock, which 
continued to be his dinner hour as long as he 
lived. After dinner he usually went back to the 
counting-room and stayed there until five o'clock 
or later; sometimes in the afternoon he would 

1 Afterwards for many years in the service of Thomas Wigglesworth 
Esq. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 149 

drive to Brookline to see his brother Benja- 
min, driving in a broad two-wheeled chaise, his 
horse being a colt which had been raised for 
him. 1 

The family tea hour was seven o'clock, and 
promptly at this hour, as at other meals, 
Michael would bring into the sitting-room from 
the hall two heavy mahogany tables which, fitted 
together, made the dining-table. From ten to v 
fourteen usually sat at table daily, the eldest 
daughter, Lucretia, being the only one married 
prior to the year 1835, and his son George 2 
dining with the family only on Sundays. The 
latter at this time lived with bachelor friends, 
Messrs. Iasigi, Frank Codman, Gossler and 
others, in the house at the southeasterly corner 
of Chestnut and Spruce Streets, and later at the 
Tremont House. After tea Mr. Goddard was in 
the habit of playing a game oi checkers, of which 
he was very fond, with one of his sons-in-law if 
either of them happened to be present. He was 

1 Michael Larkin, who worked in the stable and on the grounds as 
well as about the house, and was a privileged servant, was a man of much 
precision and punctiliousness of speech. Mr. Goddard said to him one 
day, "Michael, won't you put the horse in the chaise and bring him 
round to the door?" "I can't do it, sir." "Why not, Michael?" "Be- 
cause he is too heavy, sir." "Michael, won't you be good enough to at- 
tach the horse to the chaise and lead him round to the door?" 

2 In a letter, dated December 30, 1802, Benjamin Goddard writes to 
his brother John : " When I wrote you last I told you that Brother Nath 1 
intended to call his son George Washington. He suddenly altered his 
mind and has called him George Augustus." 



150 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

very domestic in his habits, rarely leaving the 
house in the evening, and almost never going 
to the theatre, an occasion on which he took 
several of his children to see Macready being 
the only one within their remembrance. At nine 
o'clock a dish of nuts and raisins with a decanter 
of sherry or madeira was brought in, especially 
if visitors were present. Large parties were not 
given, but smaller gatherings of a few friends in 
the evening with perhaps some dancing; all the 
daughters, however, went actively into society. 1 

Commencement Day at Cambridge was an 
important event in these days. Under date of 
September 16, 1829, Henrietta Goddard writes 
to her sister Lucre tia (Mrs. Gould), then in 
Europe: "I believe I have not written you 
since Commencement; we six of us went over, 
but only Frances, George, and self to Gray's 
room. The day was very favorable and the 
parts generally good, though none of them were 
remarkably brilliant; Storrow, Gray, Cunning- 
ham, Devereaux, Robbins and Channing did 
best. At the room we had a very merry time; 
he took the whole Lyceum for the occasion." 

In a letter dated March 30, 1830, the same 

1 The dancing of Henrietta Goddard with Mr. S. Parkman Blake, 
himself a fine dancer, was the subject of flattering observation and 
comment in the ballroom, other couples often yielding the floor to them, 
as if by general desire and consent. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 151 

writer thus describes one of the parties given 
at this time: "Some of our good gentry, taking 
compassion on the fashionable community, to 
prevent its falling into an irrevocable sleep, 
issued cards of invitation for a ball at the Tre- 
mont House; they were Messrs. Belknap, 
Cushing, F. C. Gray, Paige, Clarke, J. Gray, 
S. Lawrence & Truman. It was a splendid 
affair, they danced in the two end rooms of the 
building, having a band in each, the long entry 
or promenade from one to the other had shrubs, 
plants of various kinds and orange trees on each 
side. There was a great profusion of natural 
flowers about the rooms and on the supper table. 
This last was elegantly spread, and resembled 
more, I presume, some suppers which you have 
seen abroad than any we have had here; in the 
centre was a pavilion of sugar with seats inside, 
and supported by columns of rock candy which 
glittered like jewelry. Everything was in French 
style and so metamorphosed that nobody knew 
where to find what was called for; for instance, a 
gentleman called for tongue & after a long search 
it was discovered in the form of a goose; but 
these things are all old to you now — we, you 
must remember, are half a century behind the 
French in such matters. I will not undertake 
to describe the dresses but should like to tell you 



152 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

what M rs Otis wore to M rs Bond's. Her dress 
was black canton crape with a white satin waist 
and sleeves, a bouquet of large artificial flowers 
on each shoulder, one before and one behind, her 
hair dressed very high, with a similar bunch of 
flowers on the top of it and above all a stuffed 
bird." 

The following extracts from a letter dated 
April 28, 1830, give some further account of 
social life and incidents in Boston at this time: 
"We have not much news — the city is full of 
horrid stories, but I do not believe them. Miss 
Perkins had her bag and veil taken from her 
the other day in broad daylight while walking 
in Beacon Street, and received a severe blow at 
the same time ; there have been one or two other 
such instances. . . . The Otis family and Miss 
Marshall are reconciled; that is our best news. 
Young M r O. made a fine speech, I believe in 
our House of Representatives, but I don't know 
when; it was very much applauded and his 
father was so delighted that he went to him, 
shook hands and asked if there was anything in 
the world he could do for him; he requested 
him to treat Miss M. as a daughter and he 
promised to do so. Shortly after, meeting her in 
the street, he went to her and requested per- 
mission to call and see her, saying that he should 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 153 

not think of taking that liberty unless she would 
permit him; she said she should be pleased to 
see him, etc., and the matter is settled. This is 
the story. She says she shall not be married any 
earlier than she should before the reconciliation 
took place, in other words not till he can sup- 
port her, and I like her spirit. We hear very 
often from George; he is very well. Next Tues- 
day is exhibition 1 and we all expect to go. I wish 
you both could join our party. I don't think 
N. & B« will have any company at their room, 
as they seem to have no wish for it, nor have 
they many acquaintances beyond the family; 
we, however, anticipate a good deal of pleasure. 
President Q(uincy) has requested them not 
to entertain their classes." 

Among the visitors at Mr. Goddard's house 
were Mr. Issaverdens, a Smyrnyote Greek en- 
gaged in the Mediterranean trade, Mr. Gossler, 
a banker, Mr. Iasigi, Mr. Meier and Mr. Knorre, 
all representing foreign business houses, and 
upon friendly and cordial terms with the family. 
Miss Lucretia Dawes, a maiden lady of plea- 
sant manners and quaint humor and a relative of 
the family, 2 was a frequent visitor, and other 



1 At Cambridge. 

2 Miss Dawes was a daughter of William Dawes, Junior, and half 
sister of Mehitable (Dawes) Goddard. 



154 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

relatives coming in from the country towns 
would frequently, as was the custom in those 
days, put up their horses in the stable and their 
trunks would be found standing in the hall- 
way, prepared for a visit without formal invita- 
tion. The house is said to have been a source of 
much wonder and admiration to strangers, who 
would come to see it as they might to see a 
notable public building. 

Mr. Goddard imported at one time gold 
watches for his seven daughters, a piano, a harp 
for his daughter Lucretia and a lyre for Henri- 
etta ; these are all now in the family, the harp in 
actual use. Two of the daughters, Mary and 
Frances, played a few simple airs on the piano, 
but the family could not fairly be called a musi- 
cal one. He was in the habit of doing all such 
things on a large and liberal scale, as is shown by 
these importations. It is said to have been 
his intention to build a block of houses on King- 
ston Street, one for each of his children as they 
married. 

The family attended the "First (Unitarian) 
Church" in Chauncy Place (Rev. N. L. Frothing- 
ham's), and until the latter part of his life Mr. 
Goddard was a regular attendant, his pew being 
numbered 58 on the left of the broad aisle about 
half way to the pulpit. Chauncy Place was at 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 155 

that time separated from Bedford Place by a brick 
wall and stone gate-posts ; both are now parts of 
Chauncy Street. 

In appearance Mr. Goddard was at this 
time a man of medium height, inclined to be 
stout, of full body, erect, and quick in his move- 
ments, of florid face, and with gray hair. He 
invariably wore knee-breeches, 1 with black silk 
stockings in summer and white-topped boots in 
winter. Smith & Gore, who kept a stocking store 
in Boston, imported these stockings once a year 
for him and for Mr. Barney Hedge of Plym- 
outh (six pairs for each), who were the last to 
wear them. The upper part of his costume was 
a dress coat and waistcoat, both of the prevailing 
black, varied only by a white waistcoat which 
he invariably wore in summer, ruffled shirt, and 
white neck-handkerchief tied behind. Earlier in 
life he wore a queue tied with a black ribbon. 
The overcoat was a surtout opening behind. A 
fall from the capsill of a wharf in icy weather 
on to the fender of a vessel which he was load- 
ing caused a lameness which gave him a slight 
limp in walking ever afterwards. He was a man 
of great endurance, especially in the power of 
going without food, often putting some crackers 

1 A pair of silver knee-buckles is in the possession of his great-grand- 
daughter, Mrs. Henry S. Bush. 



156 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

in his pocket in the morning and going all day 
without returning home to dinner or eating other 
food. 

But very few data exist for a connected account 
of the first years of his business life in Boston, 
but it is known that as early as 1802 he was pur- 
chasing wharf property at the North End, buy- 
ing in that year from Harrison Gray Otis and 
Artemas Ward an interest (J^) in the Boston 
Pier or Long Wharf, otherwise known as the 
"Island Wharf," and "the store now occupied 
by Head & Amory together with the whole of 
the stores numbered 28 and 29 in the upper 
division and 52 in the lower division of said 
wharf." He subsequently purchased other 
stores or store lots on the same wharf, and also 
acquired an interest in "Bhoades' Wharf" ad- 
joining. From this time until almost the end of 
his life he was dealing largely in wharf property, 
as will later appear. 

In 1816 he seems to have begun his ship-build- 
ing career; at any rate the earliest record that is 
preserved shows that in March of that year he 
contracted with Calvin Turner of Medford to 
build for him the brig Governor Brooks of the 
following dimensions : 76 feet keel measurement, 
23 feet beam, 11 feet 6 inches deep in the lower 
hold and 5 feet 6 inches between decks. "She 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 157 

shall be ceiled with good white oak plank full 2-| 
inches thick and made sufficiently tight to hold 
flax seed," etc., all details being minutely speci- 
fied to insure thorough work, the vessel to be 
completed on or before the first day of August 
following. The actual dimensions, as appear 
by the Register, December 30, 1816, are: length 
94 feet, breadth 24^- feet, tonnage 244 |f. 
The wages list is as follows: Captain $50.00 
per month and perquisites or $100.00 per 
month and no perquisites; mate $25.00 per 
month; second mate and carpenter $25.00 per 
month; six men and cook $11.00 per month; 
boy $8.00 per month. In June, 1816, he was 
contracting for repairs on the brig Gemini, 
but beyond this there is no record of her pur- 
chase or building. In all his ship-building 
contracts the most careful provision is made 
to ensure thoroughness of construction, every 
detail for planking of hull, decks, iron-work, 
rigging and finish of every description being 
set forth with the utmost minuteness. 

In 1818 he bought with Captain Burrows the 
brig Dryade of 260 tons, George Wilson mas- 
ter, and later purchased Captain Burrows's share. 
At about the same time he built or bought 
the Ventrosa, Captain James Allen, and the 
Grampus, Captain Elkanah Bangs. In 1835 



158 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Jotham Stetson of Medford built for him the 
barque Van Buren, of 360 tons, and in 1836 
the barque Frederic Warren, of 363 tons. The 
latter was commanded by Captain Nichols, and 
was the last ship he ever built. He also owned 
the brig Apthorp, the Trescott, named after 
his friend Col. Lemuel Trescott, and com- 
manded by Captain Joseph Lindsay; another 
called the Timor; the brig Louisa, Captain 
Warner, in which his son Benjamin afterwards 
made a voyage to Smyrna; and in conjunction 
with Mr. B. A. Gould the barque Tartar, 
William W. Johnson, master. 1 The brig Beta, 
Captain William Cleveland, and the Columbia, 
Captain John O. Foster, make up a fleet of 
thirteen sail, of which he was sole or part owner, 
in most cases the former, and whose voyages 
he directly managed and controlled. 2 A long list 
of captains includes, besides those above men- 
tioned, the names of John W. Allen, William 
Symmes, Samuel Moore, John Cushing, Aaron 
Brewster, Symes Potter, Allen Bursley, John 
S. Abbott, William T. Marshall, Samuel Somes, 
James Pearson, J. C. Barnard, Francis Bladder 
and Asa Pratt. Mr. Goddard was at all times 
considerate of the health and comfort of his 

1 March 6, 1845, he sold his interest in this vessel to Mr. Gould. 

2 See reference to ownership of the "Ariadne," p. 235. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 159 

officers and men, as his letters show, but he was 
strict in requiring on their part exemplary con- 
duct and a prompt observance of orders. While 
making due allowance for difficulties in individual 
cases, he was unyielding in all matters involving 
a possible detention or delay of his vessels as 
affecting the outcome of the voyage. Neglect of 
orders, careless handling of the ship, and above 
all intemperance, were faults which it was im- 
possible to overlook or condone. In a letter to 
Mr. Gould dated June 1, 1829, he says, "I am 
afraid that Captain F's face is too round to make 
great despatch, though I gave him a good lesson 
the last time he was here — he promised to 
profit by it but may have forgotten it before this 
time ; most all of them want a little more Cayenne 
pepper, not rum." 

In March, 1846, Mr. Goddard contracted 

with Messrs. Holbrook & Dillon to build for 

him a mud-excavating machine, the Neptune, 

to cost twelve thousand dollars, and also three 

gondolas ' ' or scows . 

For many years his counting-room was on 
Union Wharf, which he owned, having pur- 
chased one-half of the property in 1828 from 
Henry K. May and the remaining half in 1834 ;* 

1 Union Wharf had been owned by Colonel John May and was known 
as "May's Wharf." 



160 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

but whether -this was his earliest place of busi- 
ness it is impossible now to determine. His 
office was a single room with loft overhead in a 
brick building at the lower end of the wharf, the 
windows looking down the harbor. Next door 
and in the same block were Messrs. Mackay & 
Coolidge, Alfred Richardson, Nathaniel and 
Benjamin Goddard (his sons), and William W. 
Goddard (his nephew), and in a wooden build- 
ing at the head of the wharf his son-in-law, 
Benjamin Apthorp Gould. The wharfingers were 
successively Henry K. May and Captain David 
Elwell. His son George had a desk in the count- 
ing-room, and was engaged in business as an 
importer, but not in partnership with his father. 
Later, however, he was a part-owner in several 
of his father's vessels as will hereafter appear. 
The bookkeeper was Mr. Foster of the old firm 
of Walley & Foster, who was later succeeded on 
his retirement by Henry W. Pickering. 

In order to gain a just view of Mr. Goddard's 
varied shipping interests and of his widely ex- 
tended dealings with home and foreign ports, 
it may be well to follow the course of some of his 
ships' voyages as detailed in his instructions 
to captains, supercargoes and consignees; the 
following facts are extracted from such of his 
letter-books and memoranda as are now extant. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 161 

The brig "Governor Brooks" (Joseph Pierce, 
and later John W. Allen, master) sailed from 
Boston for Baltimore December 31, 1816, con- 
signed to Amos Adams Williams, arrived there 
on the 7th of January, hauled into the wharf on 
the 8th, and sailed thence on the 19th with a 
cargo of flour for Lisbon, arriving there on the 
3d day of March ; left that place on the 28th of 
March for Dublin where she arrived in 26 days 
on the 23d of April; sailed thence on the 
17th day of May for St. Petersburg, arriving on 
the 5th day of June, and July 17 sailed for 
Boston, arriving in 46 days, September 1, 1817. 
On the 24th of September she sailed for New 
Orleans consigned to Messrs. Richardson & 
Fisk, arriving November 1, loading with cot- 
ton and tobacco and clearing for Havre De- 
cember 30; left the bar January 3, 1818, 
arriving at Havre February 18; sailed for New 
Orleans March 27, arriving June 3, and left 
again for Havre June 22, arriving August 10; 
left Havre for St. Petersburg August 18, arriv- 
ing September 6, and sailed thence October 
7 for Boston, arriving November 26, 1818. 

The following letters will illustrate in part the 
voyages above named, as well as others under- 
taken during the same years and later up to the 
month of February, 1821. 



162 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Boston, September 23, 1817. 

To Capt. John W. Allen. 

Sir : — You being master of the brig " Governor 
Brooks" now in this harbor and ready for sea, it 
is my wish that you will improve the first fair 
wind and proceed for New Orleans with all 
possible despatch; on your arrival there you 
will please to deliver the articles of cargo on 
board on my account to Messrs. Richardson & 
Fisk for sale and those on freight to the sev- 
eral consignees, they paying you freight on the 
same which you will please to reserve to defray 
your port charges. You will employ Messrs. 
Richardson & Fisk to procure a balance of 
freight for the brig for some European port, which 
port you will be notified of on your arrival by 
letters which I shall forward to you and also to 
the above gentlemen in season for the purpose. 
I shall forward funds which with the proceeds 
of merchandise on board I shall request to have 
invested immediately in cotton and tobacco and 
shipped as occasion may require, respecting 
which I shall write the consignees from time to 
time; but you will bear in mind that I prefer 
a reasonable freight for the vessel at all times 
to shipping on my own account, and if one and 
one-half pence sterling per pound or upwards 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 163 

can be had without any loss of time for hard- 
pressed cotton, take this on freight to the 
exclusion of my property which may remain 
subject to my future disposal; but as a part of 
my present investment is ordered in tobacco, it 
may be necessary to decide immediately on dis- 
charging whether she can be filled up without 
loss of time, as in case I am obliged to ship a part 
my tobacco must go into the bottom of the ves- 
sel. Many vessels will be directly after yours, 
therefore you will see the importance of despatch 
and that some cargo is ready to go on board 
before all is taken out. You will be careful that 
neither officers nor men take any contraband 
goods on board or attempt to smuggle any article. 
You will also attend to and see that vour busi- 
ness is properly attended to by the commission 
merchants you employ or who do the business of 
the brig, and that no commission is charged you 
on money advanced to pay disbursements, and 
in case you take passengers find no wine nor 
spirits for their use. Should you at any time on 
your voyages visit any port in England or Ire- 
land and leave said port without any freight 
for any other part of the world, please to clear 
for the same port you arrived from; this saves 
half the tonnage or light money. When you 
return to the United States make your manifest 



164 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and report for some other port than the one 
you arrive at; this will enable you to go to a 
second port without discharging, if it is neces- 
sary in order to find a better market. You will, 
if in Europe and you receive no counter orders, 
cause to be remitted the proceeds of all your 
freights to Samuel Williams, Esq., 1 Merchant, 
No. 13 Finsbury Square, London, for my ac- 
count. You will keep me advised from time to 
time of the progress you make by every good 
conveyance by water to this place direct or via 
New York, and while in New Orleans please to 
write by mail weekly. 



Boston, September 24, 1817. 

Messrs. Richardson & Fisk, 
[New Orleans]. 
Gentlemen: — Your Mr. Fisk has undoubt- 
edly informed you of my intention of sending to 
your house my brig " Governor Brooks," John 
W. Allen, master, for a freight for Europe, and 

1 During the year 1825 Mr. Williams, who had been Mr. Goddard's 
correspondent in London for many years, failed in business. The high 
esteem in which he was held by his associates is shown by the follow- 
ing extract from a letter written by Benjamin Goddard to his brother 
John, dated in December of that year: "Brothers Nathaniel and William 
each have about three thousand pounds st g in his [Mr. Williams'] 
hands. Nathaniel was liable to have had a much greater sum, which 
Mr. Williams had authority to draw for, the proceeds of a cargo sent 
to the North of Europe, but as an honest man he did not avail himself 
of it." 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 165 

also of forwarding funds by mail for the pur- 
chase of cotton and tobacco in addition to sundry 
articles on board and freight, which articles I 
wish sold and the amount also invested as here- 
after requested, to wit: immediately on the ar- 
rival of the vessel I wish her put up for freight for 
Havre; my brother, Mr. William Goddard, and 
my nephew, Mr. Samuel Goddard, have agreed to 
ship a quantity of cotton in her and I have no 
doubt but they have forwarded funds and orders 
for purchasing it; if with this freight agreed for 
a sufficient quantity at a fair rate of freight shall 
offer while discharging her outward cargo, you 
will commence loading and send her off without 
loss of time. In the meantime and as soon as you 
receive this you will commence purchasing for 
my account without delay and continue as you 
shall be in funds until you complete a purchase 
of one hundred hogsheads all of the first quality 
of tobacco, provided the price shall not exceed 
seven cents per pound (and I hope it will be very 
much under). The balance of my funds includ- 
ing the proceeds of property on board invest 
in the first quality and no other of new cotton, 
and should this first quality of new cotton be as 
low or lower than twenty-eight cents per pound 
at any time you may draw on me at sixty days 
sight for $5000 more and invest this also. I 



166 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

shall be pleased to find that you are able to 
anticipate the amount of the proceeds of mer- 
chandise on board to add to my other funds. I 
will enclose an invoice of this property that you 
may have some guide to dispose of it by. The 
sheetings are very good having been selected 
by one of the best judges in St. Petersburg and 
cost an extra price, but the Ravens duck is as 
good if not superior to any ever imported into 
the United States and cost in Russia more than 
the common kind retails at here. The boards are 
a common kind and the mackerel also; the 
molasses hogsheads were picked by a cooper 
and cost an extra price and I hope you will ob- 
tain one for them. The New England rum is as 
good as any and the barrels ought to be paid 
for, but in this particular you will have to con- 
form to the custom of the place. I shall for- 
ward funds to the amount of $20,000 as good 
safe opportunity may offer. The brig sailed 
for your city this day; I forgot to speak re- 
specting her, but will merely say that she is in- 
ferior to no one ever built. I think it probable 
that the articles in my invoice would net me as 
much sold from the levee as in any way, with 
the exception perhaps of the duck sheetings 
and rum, and a part of them may sell as well. 
The report here is that tobacco can be had 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 167 

at five and a quarter cents per pound; I hope 
it may, but if not you may go as high as seven 
cents. 

Boston, October 21, 1817. 

Capt. John W. Allen, 

Sir : — This will reach you in New Orleans by 
the time you will have your cargo on board. I 
wish you to proceed thence with all possible de- 
spatch for Havre, call on Messrs. Welles, Williams 
and Greene to transact vour business, deliver 
them my part of your cargo to be disposed of 
immediately for my account and have the pro- 
ceeds remitted to Samuel Williams, Esq., Mer- 
chant, London, on whom I shall draw as oc- 
casion may require. The remainder of the cargo 
you may deliver agreeably to the bills of lading 
and receive your freight or get Messrs. Welles, 
Williams and Greene to collect it by agreement 
made with the shippers here ; the rate is to be one 
and a half pence sterling per pound and five per 
cent primage. You will immediately on being 
discharged ballast the vessel, take on board any 
freight that may offer without detention and 
proceed directly back for New Orleans where 
I shall write you again. I expect you will be 
ready to leave New Orleans by the 20th of 
November, reach Havre by the 1st of January 



168 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and get back to New Orleans by the 20th of 
February; if you will accomplish this voyage in 
the above-named time, which I think amply 
sufficient, I will give you a hundred dollars 
extra for the voyage. You need not wait an 
hour for freight at Havre, but take in some 
ballast before you take out all your cargo, as the 
vessel will be crank when light. In returning it 
may be best to run the trades down for old 
Cape Francois and along the north side of His- 
paniola, then between that island and Cuba 
and along the south side of Cuba, as your vessel 
may draw too much water to go over the banks, 
and I think this first-named route the easiest 
for a winter passage, but of this you will judge. 
You will replenish your provisions if necessary 
in Havre. Please be very careful that your officers 
or men do not attempt to smuggle anything, or 
in any way by illicit business hazard the vessel 
or cause anv detention. 

Boston, December 1, 1817. 

Samuel Williams, Esq., 
London. 
Sir: — My brig " Governor Brooks," John W. 
Allen, master, was at New Orleans on the 1st ul- 
timo; part of a cargo is engaged on freight and in 
order to make great despatch I forwarded about 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 169 

$26,000 to invest in tobacco and cotton, or 
altogether in cotton as the price might be. She 
is ordered to Havre and consigned to Messrs. 
Welles, Williams and Greene, and I have re- 
quested them to remit the proceeds of freight 
to you and also the proceeds of my property on 
board if shipped and it can be sold immediately 
at my limits, or as much on account of said 
property as they may be willing to advance until 
sold, which amount I may have occasion to 
draw for to reinvest and do it before I can hear 
from them or yourself. The "Ventrosa" is at 
Savannah and I have forwarded $30,000 to be 
invested in rice and cotton, or wholly in cotton 
if rice is too high, and I hope the balance of her 
cargo will be obtained on freight; this vessel 
will sail for Antwerp and go consigned to 
Messrs. L. J. Mertens, Mosselman & Co. for 
sales of cargo. A young gentleman, Mr. Charles 
Bruce, is on board for the purpose of attending 
to her business, etc. My object is to obtain an 
advance on this cargo as much as these gentlemen 
are willing to give, to enable me to prosecute the 
second part of the voyage, to wit: with this 
property to proceed to Havana and invest it in 
coffee and sugar and return to Antwerp con- 
signed to the same house, whom I shall request 
to remit the whole net proceeds to you, from 



170 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

which place the vessel will proceed to the north- 
ward for a cargo and return home. I would 
not trouble you with this long narrative were it 
not probable Mr. Bruce would be compelled to 
get his doubloons from London, in which case 
he may request your aid, and you will very 
much oblige me by giving him the necessary 
information on his requesting it. 

Boston, January 3, 1818. 

Messrs. Welles, Williams & Greene. 

Gentlemen: — I avail myself of this opportu- 
nity via Rochelle to write again in case my others 
to you on circuitous routes might miscarry, and in- 
form you that my brig the " Governor Brooks "has 
undoubtedly sailed before this time from New Or- 
leans for your city and her cargo will be consigned 
to your house by the several shippers. I shall 
probably have on board about twenty-five or 
twenty-six thousand dollars' worth of cotton 
which will be of a superior quality as the pur- 
chasers were ordered to ship no other; if this 
cotton will bring but a small profit or only 
enough to pay all charges including freight, I 
am willing it should be immediately disposed 
of, but if it will not do this and you are willing 
to advance largely upon it, I had rather it 
should be holden for a better price as the supply 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 171 

will not be very large from America this year. 
In case it is sold I wish all the proceeds, with the 
exception of $5,000 which I wish paid to the 
Captain, remitted to Samuel Williams, Esq., 
London, for my account, as I wish to draw for 
the purpose of reloading the vessel again at 
New Orleans. Captain Allen will receive this 
$5,000 and the proceeds of freight, and after 
refitting the vessel for sea and paying his port 
charges, take the amount back with him to 
New Orleans. I hope the vessel will not be 
detained a week in port, and if the cotton will 
bring a decent profit over cost and charges please 
to sell it on landing. 

Boston, May 26, 1818. 

To Messrs. Richardson & Fisk. 

Gentlemen: ... It is possible amongst the 
wonderful things that are taking place that cotton 
and tobacco may for want of vessels to ship in or 
some other cause get very low; should the former 
go down at any period, for the very best kind as 
low as thirty cents per pound, or the latter of the 
very best quality go down to seven cents per pound 
or below, and my vessel have left my funds in 
your hands not invested, you may invest the 
whole amount in either or both of these articles 
without waiting to hear from me. 



172 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

V 

Boston, June 20, 1818. 

Captain John W. Allen. 

Sir, — This will be forwarded to you by Sam- 
uel Williams, Esq., London, who will give you a 
letter of credit to Mr. John D. Lewis of Peters- 
burg where I wish you to proceed with the brig 
with the greatest despatch for a cargo, agreeable 
to memorandum subjoined, provided the prices 
of the several articles shall bear a price pro- 
portional to the prices annexed to them in the 
memorandum subjoined. The quantity of iron 
and hemp I wish to come let the price vary as it 
will, unless a large quantity has been shipped 
for America; if a very large quantity of hemp 
shall have been shipped take less of that article, 
especially if it is high, but if a very little has been 
shipped even if the price is some enhanced 
take the whole quantity. Tallow may be omitted 
altogether if the price on board including all 
charges shall be over nine cents. The manu- 
factures may be increased or diminished as 
the prices may vary from the memorandum 
and as quantities may have been shipped or 
omitted; if but a small proportion to the usual 
imports to America of some of them has been 
shipped you may increase the quantities of such ; 
if many or an increased proportion of others has 
been shipped previously, you may omit a part 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 173 

or all of such. I shall request Mr. Williams to 
give authority to draw for a sum not over forty- 
five or less than forty thousand dollars to in- 
vest; should the vessel not be loaded on my ac- 
count, investing the funds as I have proportioned 
them, take freight if to be had, otherwise in- 
crease the quantity of iron, and if there should 
not be as much difference between old "sable" 
and new as $5.00 per ton please to take all old 
"sable." 

Boston, June 22, 1818. 

Mr. John D. Lewis. 

Sir, — Your several favors have duly come to 
hand and I thank you for the attention in giving 
the state of the markets, but regret the general 
rise of goods as they will not rise proportionally 
here, and our duty on many articles is much 
enhanced particularly on iron and flems. The 
"Governor Brooks," Captain Allen, will be in 
St. Petersburg, accidents excepted, this season, 
but on account of unavoidable detentions will 
be a late vessel; I hope every possible despatch 
will be given her that she may not be too late 
on our coast in returning. I shall enclose a list 
of the wished-for cargo provided there shall be 
no essential variation in the prices or relative rates 
they shall bear to each other; should the rise or 



174 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

fall in manufactures be uniform, there is no 
objection to taking the proportion of each as 
stated in the memorandum, unless a large and 
disproportionate quantity of some shall have 
been shipped, in which case I would lessen the 
quantity of such articles; or in case but a little 
of some articles shall have been shipped to 
America, in that case I would much increase 
such articles provided they are considered to 
be of a staple kind, governing the shipments of 
articles and proportion by circumstances. If in 
shipping iron the difference of price per ton 
between old and new "sable" shall not exceed 
$5.00, please to omit the new and ship all of the 
old "sable," and if the difference between clean 
and "out shot" hemp shall not be $20.00 per 
ton ship all clean; no bristles will answer but the 
very best quality, and they will answer at any 
reasonable rate. The best yellow candle tallow- 
may answer at nine cents per pound all charges 
on board, but not at a higher rate; if the cost 
is more than this please omit it altogether. I 
have added to the list furnished Captain Allen 
some sheet iron with a description and price 
limited at five and a half cents per pound on 
board; if this is purchased at this rate it will 
answer well; but it is important that the bands 
be light as the duty is very great here, and also 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 175 

that it be perfectly free from rust, smooth and 
bright, and stowed in a part of the vessel between 
decks where no dampness is and wnere it cannot 
be bruised. If Captain Allen goes to your city 
as I expect, his funds will probably not exceed 
$40,000, in which case the vessel may not be 
loaded or filled; I should therefore be glad of 
freight to fill up provided it did not make her 
too deep, as I had rather she would take no 
freight than to come at that season of the year 
deep. 

Boston, January 22, 1819. 

Messrs. Waln and Morris. 

[Philadelphia] 
Gentlemen, — I have concluded to send one 
of my vessels to India and shall have to raise a 
considerable sum for funds to load her; she is 
now in Charleston and will proceed to Europe for 
her dollars, for which purpose additional funds 
will be wanted; I must beg of you to use your 
best endeavors to sell what merchandise I have 
in your hands, if you can without sacrifice, to 
repay you and to enable me to draw further at 
sixty days, though as I before observed, if it is 
in any way inconvenient to pay my last draft 
you may draw on me for the amount. 



176 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

V 

Boston, January 30, 1819. 

Mr. Charles Bruce. 

Sir, — I wrote you in great haste to-day just at 
the closing of the mail and was as particular as 
the time would admit, but had no time to take a 
copy. In that I pointed out as well as I could 
the manner I wished my funds disposed of but 
did not explain why I wished the amount of 
them taken from the banks in specie; this will 
cause a temporary check and enable you to buy. 
I will now add, if you do not succeed in investing 
them as I have requested and they shall remain 
on hand on the sailing of the " Governor Brooks," 
the "Dryade," Captain Burrows, will be there, 1 
and if you find he is bound for Antwerp, Amster- 
dam, Havre, Liverpool or London and you can 
ship at the same rate of freight as in the " Gov- 
ernor Brooks," and the price shall not exceed 
twenty-five cents for the very first quality, you 
may invest and ship the balance in cotton in that 
vessel. In calculating your exchange on London 
you will perceive they call par a different rate 
from what we cast it; they call the dollar four 
shillings eight pence sterling being their cur- 
rency when in fact it is but four shillings and 
six pence, so that the pound sterling would be 
but four and 16/56 dollars making most two 

1 Charleston. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 177 

per cent difference, that is, their par is near 
two per cent discount. 

/ Boston, February 19, 1819. 

Capt. John W. Allen. 

Sir, — I here enclose instructions for your voy- 
age to India, having an earlier conveyance than 
I expected, and they will reach you soon after 
you arrive in Europe. I have written Mr. Wil- 
liams respecting furnishing the funds and I have 
no doubt but he will to the amount of $40,000 
in Spanish dollars for cargo exclusive of other 
charges of outfits, etc., and if he is not disposed 
to advance on anticipation of remuneration 
from the proceeds of your present cargo with 
such remittances as I shall make to him, to that 
amount or the amount of $35,000, I will not 
prosecute the voyage, but if you are in Liver- 
pool and freight offers to any port in the United 
States, take it; if not, proceed as requested in 
my last of the 15th current. You need take no 
scales and weights, as these are wanted in pepper 
voyages in native ports alone. Since writing the 
instructions I find by a vessel arrived here this 
day that the government allow us to visit only 
two out ports in Java, and these are Samarang 
and Sourabay, for which you must obtain liberty 
at Batavia. In order to keep your men healthy, 



178 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

in addition to keeping them on board and out 
of the hot hold of the vessel, do not let them 
drink Batavia water; it is good in the other 
parts of the island but not here. 

Boston, March 2, 1819. 

Capt. John W. Allen. 

Sir, — When you get to Batavia if before the 
first of September you will find the crop is not in ; 
therefore you will get old coffee if you can, if not 
you must be extremely careful that all you get is 
perfectly dry and in good order. I can add 
nothing now except what you will perceive from 
the papers, to wit, that the Floridas are ceded 
to the United States. 

Boston, March 6, 1819. 

Capt. J. W. Allen. 

Sir, — Since my last of the 2nd current Mr. 
Bruce has arrived and handed me a billet from 
you to him, with the request that I should write 
you respecting sundries therein contained, which 
I with pleasure improve the first opportunity to 
do; and first I will observe that the voyage to 
India will not be longer or more difficult than 
your voyage was last year from Boston until 
you return again, and much more pleasant for 
the vessel and for those on board; you will not 
be as likely to lose your boats or suffer damage 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 179 

and I think the two you have amply sufficient. 
I have consulted Messrs. Bryant and Sturgis 
and they sometimes have more in a large vessel 
going to the native coast; they sometimes put 
on board a small whale boat but it is considered 
unnecessary and mere lumber to the vessel. I 
have no objection to your having four cannon, 
four or six pounders if you wish them, but I 
think to Java two would answer as there is no 
danger in port except of thieves ; all the hazard 
is out of port on the coast, and then but a little 
especially when under weigh. There ought to be 
twelve good muskets with ball cartridges and 
spare powder. I have duplicated instructions 
and no doubt you will have received them be- 
fore this reaches you. I hope you will not con- 
sult Englishmen in fitting your vessel, for they 
take twice as much as is necessary for an Ameri- 
can; they calculate a two years' voyage and a 
Dutchman calculates on three years. I think 
our prospect good, for many people are dis- 
couraged about India voyages, therefore I am 
encouraged ; I like the gloomiest times best for 
fitting out. Coffee no doubt will answer and rice 
to fill up if sugar does not promise better, and I 
think and hope you will be able to load at Java. 



180 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Boston, March 11, 1819. 

Mr. Joseph Leland. 1 

Sir, — By the advice of our mutual friend 
Captain Holland I have shipped agreeable to 
bill of lading subjoined 110 pieces Russia sheet- 
ings; a certificate entitling them to deben- 
ture on exportation accompanies the goods. 
Please to dispose of them to the best advantage 
you can and hold the proceeds subject to my 
disposal. 

Boston, June 19, 1819. 

Mr. Samuel Goddard. 

Sir, — Frederic will be the bearer of this ; he 
has concluded to visit the "tight little island" 
for health which I sincerely hope he will find. 
He will probably call on you at Manchester in 
the course of his pilgrimage and will need much 
instruction and advice to pursue his course 
pleasantly. I have no doubt you will cheerfully 
give it, but I fear unless you are guarded that 
he may encroach too much on your time of 
business ; do not let this be the case. I sincerely 
hope he will find you in the full enjoyment of 
health, swiftly moving on the great road to 
wealth, increasing all that is good and will 
promote happiness. 

1 The Messrs. Leland were later for many years his correspondents 
in Charleston, as was Mr. Elias Reed in Savannah, in the purchase of 
cotton ; this was consigned for sale to Messrs. William Ford & Co. in 
Liverpool. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 181 

Boston, February 16, 1820. 

Mr. Charles Bruce. 

Sir, — Yours of the 3rd from Augusta reached 
me this day. I have written several times and 
anticipated the principal part of your wishes 
with respect to having every bale of cotton prime ; 
should it be difficult to secure such I would 
advise you to get the best lots that are to be had 
and if there are a few not quite so good let it 
go with the rest; I do not wish you to perform 
impossibilities but I wish as good as can con- 
veniently be obtained, and if any is ordinary 
the price of course will be less. In previous 
letters I requested you to buy square bales in 
preference, but not to give anything of conse- 
quence more for it; on taking the tare and 
freight into calculation it will not nett half a 
cent extra in Antwerp; in Havre it would make 
more difference. 

Boston, February 18, 1820. 

H. G. Otis, Esq. 

Sir, — Yours of the 9th current covering a note 
from the Hon. Mr. Lowndes is before me. I 
regret the necessity for troubling you again on 
the subject of coins, but it appears from the note 
from Mr. Lowndes that I have been incorrect 
in my statement or that he has misunderstood 
it. I wrote in haste and took no copy, but I 



182 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

believe I did not say that an assay of the metals 
was made in Boston; I certainly did not mean 
to be so understood, and will therefore give you 
my authority for the statement I did make re- 
specting the fineness of the foreign gold and 
the American dollars early coined. Some time 
after the law expired continuing foreign gold a 
tender, I requested the cashier of the New Eng- 
land Bank to write to the cashier of the Com- 
mercial Bank of Pennsylvania, with whom we 
do business, and request of him as a favor to 
ascertain the loss if any in receiving foreign 
gold, and from what coin we should suffer the 
least. The answer is dated January 8, 1820, 
and follows: "On British gold if taken agree- 
ably to Act of Congress of 1816 at the rate of 
$8.00 for 9 dwts. there is no loss on carriage; 
Portugal gold though quoted at the same stand- 
ard will not hold out; the Bank of North 
America fell short $40 on the coinage of $7,000 
though every precaution had been taken in the 
receipt of it; there is from two to three months 
interval at the mint between the receipt and de- 
livery. (Signed) Joseph Morris." With respect 
to the extra quantity of alloy of one per cent in 
dollars early coined, I will state my authority. 
Mr. John Vaughan of Philadelphia, a gentleman 
of great respectability, personally told me that 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 183 

he was agent for a French house and as such 
received for them 150,000 dollars, and some 
time after ascertained that they were not as 
pure as the standard fixed by Act of Congress 
by one per cent; he then demanded of Mr. 
Boudinot, then Master of the Mint, the differ- 
ence and was refused it, commenced a suit 
against him, and recovered $1500, which I pre- 
sume he could not have done unless he proved 
the fact in Court. I know of no particular assay, 
but in Canton and Calcutta (in the latter place 
they have a mint and recoin most of the silver 
exported there) our dollars will not answer by 
two per cent so well as Spanish. I must beg 
you to excuse me for being so prolix, but will 
not trouble you again on this subject. 

Boston, February 26, 1820. 

Mr. Marcus Whiting. 
[Supercargo] 

Dear Sir, — I have received but one letter 
from you since you left here and nothing from 
Captain Bangs and I know not how to calculate 
for my vessels. The "Governor Brooks" will 
have reached you long before this, and probably 
has departed again either for Stockholm or New 
Orleans, I think the latter, as no iron can be 
had at Gothenburg until May and Stockholm 



184 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

may remain frozen fully as long; but on this 
subject I have written fully before. I have not 
had a word from the "Ventrosa" since she left 
Charleston; I expect her in Savannah about 
this time and that she will make good despatch 
and be in Antwerp about the 20th of May, 
when I am desirous that she shall go to Gothen- 
burg or Stockholm for 250 tons of bar iron, in 
the proportions I named in a list forwarded 
to you for the "Governor Brooks" cargo in 
case she went for iron. When the "Governor 
Brooks" returns to Europe from New Orleans, 
if she goes to any port to the northward of the 
Bay of Biscay I shall wish her to go to Russia 
for a return cargo; you can go in her or not as 
you please and I shall at some future time 
forward a memorandum for cargo. If this is 
not agreeable to you, I think it probable that 
the "Grampus" will be in Liverpool by the 
10th of May next where I contemplate having 
her coppered and return with salt for freight 
to this port; should you prefer meeting her in 
that place you can cross over to England soon 
after the "Ventrosa" departs from Antwerp for 
her iron and you can then attend to coppering 
her. I expect that the " Dryade " will be in Liver- 
pool in July and will probably return to Rich- 
mond, Virginia, with bag salt. Knowing where 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 185 

I expect my vessels to be at different periods 
you will be able to judge which tour will be most 
agreeable to you and furnish the best conven- 
ience home. Our last dates from Frederic were 
17th November last. 

Boston, May 5, 1820. 

Messrs. John Lathrop & Co. 
[Savannah] 

Gentlemen, — I have this day received a let- 
ter from Captain Wilson of the "Dryade" dated 
Liverpool, 25th March, by which I learn that he 
will be ready for sea in a few days with a cargo 
of coarse salt for your city. I am desirous of hav- 
ing the brig meet as great despatch as possible as 
advised in mine of the 25th ult., and decidedly 
prefer a decent freight to loading a part myself 
especially at the present rates of prices of your 
produce; it fluctuates in an inverse ratio; as 
it falls in Europe it rises with you and the most 
prime cotton cannot with safety be shipped to 
Liverpool with any prospect of profit at a higher 
rate than fifteen cents, and will nett a freight 
only at as high a rate as sixteen cents per pound. 
Rice will do at $2.50 and even $2.75 for prime, 
but if $3.00 it will not pay over a freight. A few 
hogsheads of prime tobacco may also answer 
if the price should not be over four or five cents 



186 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

per pound, but this article as well as the others 
will demand a very nice examination. The pro- 
portions of these articles may be varied as the 
prices and qualities may be; I would not vary 
the proportions much, but if cotton is fifteen 
cents for prime I would load with it if rice is 
over $2.50, and if cotton be sixteen cents and 
prime rice is $2.50 I would omit the cotton and 
load with rice, in either case putting in a few 
hogsheads of prime tobacco if within my limits 
and perfectly convenient to purchase it. I leave 
the business to your discretion wishing you to 
bear in mind that despatch is a great object. The 
brig "Arab" is going from this place in a day or 
two for a cargo of rice ; please to bear this in mind 
and keep it to yourselves as it may affect the 
purchase of yours; Messrs. Mitchel and Bart- 
lett will probably be the purchasers of that cargo. 

Boston, June 24, 1820. 

Messrs. L. J. Mertens, Mosselman & Co. 1 
(Antwerp) 
Gentlemen, — I have this day made a pro- 
position to our mutual friend Mr. E. Rollins 
respecting the shipments to be made the ensuing 
season; it is of considerable importance to a con- 
tinuance of this business that it be undertaken 

1 Appendix D. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 187 

with the greatest economy, that purchases should 
be made of the principal amount of cotton and 
rice before January and it would be better to have 
them made by the 25th November. In common 
seasons being thus early we have a choice of the 
crop and at the lowest rate. It will not be con- 
venient for me to purchase to the extent that I 
am desirous of doing consistent with my other 
business, and advance the whole without the 
privilege of drawing, and though this privilege 
can be had elsewhere I give the preference to 
Antwerp to make a fair trial of what can be done. 
I own as many vessels as I am desirous of em- 
ploying in this direct business, and I am aware 
of the necessity for making purchases at the most 
favorable moment, of having the selection of 
quality carefully attended to, the vessels promptly 
despatched and insurance made on the most 
favorable terms in order to secure a reasonable 
profit. I hope under the circumstances in which 
I propose to commence the trial that I shall so far 
succeed as to be able to pursue it to some advan- 
tage, when many others by sending their vessels 
transiently and purchasing at unfavorable mo- 
ments suffer a loss by their shipments. One great 
loss generally sustained is caused by the shippers 
being compelled to make their insurance in Eng- 
land, a tax that this trade would not warrant, 



188 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and we do not feel as secure in case of a loss 
when insurance is made there; premiums are 
with us much lower, and we save the expense 
of stamps, duties, etc. I think Mr. Rollins 
would not feel unsafe even if all I should have 
afloat at any one time were totally lost without 
any insurance; at any rate he would be safe 
with the liberty granted that I ask, but it is not 
contemplated to ship without insurance as at 
the present low rates of premium it would be 
imprudent in the extreme and insurance will 
always be made. Should you grant the privilege 
agreeable to my proposal and it should not meet 
your expectations the first season it can be 
dispensed with immediately on notice being 
given. 

Boston, August 5, 1820. 

Mr. Samuel Goddard. 

[Manchester] 

Dear Nephew, — In sixty days more I con- 
template leaving the New England Bank; the 
term of my apprenticeship of seven years will 
then expire and I shall once more be elevated 
to the high standing of a private citizen. I can- 
not but think that a man is deficient in sense 
who condescends to accept of any place under 
any government of any description; it is a kind 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 189 

of restraint on his liberty which I never mean 
to consent to again. I would not be compelled 
to be in any spot on any particular day, and in 
future I will do as I please, be where I please 
and when I please without any real or implied 
restraint, or be a servant; and if a servant I 
will serve whom I choose and when I please and 
live as I please, and nothing short of this is 
liberty. I have served more than seven appren- 
ticeships and I will be free. My last in the New 
England Bank has been as pleasant as either and 
I have given notice that I shall stay no longer 
than the first Monday in October. 1 

You may ask what next and I answer business ; 
the ensuing year I mean to do some, having 
been idle for a long period, and if by working 
diligently sixteen hours in the day, appropriating 
seven hours to sleep and one to amusements 
and eating, I cannot make money, I shall go 
without it; and it is not very unlikely that it 
will be the latter, but if we do not sow we cannot 
expect to reap. Business is as good here as we 
can reasonably expect it to continue in a state of 

1 On the 8th of July, 1813 the New England Bank was organized 
under a Charter of the year 1811. At a meeting at the Exchange Coffee 
House, at which the entire Board of twelve Directors was present, Nathan- 
iel Goddard was elected President. He served longer than the "seven 
years apprenticeship," however, ultimately resigning October 7, 1823, 
when he was succeeded by Samuel Dorr, Esq. Mr. Goddard remained 
on the Board of Direction. 



190 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

profound peace, and it cannot be said to be very 
bad, for where there is industry and economy 
people acquire property, but it is gathered 
slowly and things have not yet got down to the 
good old prices; therefore it requires much 
caution in trading. Labor and produce, how- 
ever, keep up, and as on your side of the water 
you will not admit our produce for your con- 
sumption, we will not, I might say cannot, buy 
all your manufactures; if you oblige us to eat 
all our flour, corn, butter, etc. we will leave 
you to wear out or use your surplus manu- 
factures; but remember that we are willing to 
exchange commodities on reasonable terms each 
party making his own bargain; this I call 
liberty. 

Boston, August 5, 1820. 

Messrs. H. H. Meier & Co. 

Gentlemen, — I have agreed with your friend 
Mr. Motz to send my brig "Dryade," Captain 
Wilson, to Bremen and to consign to your house 
with one hundred hogsheads of tobacco and 
twenty-five bales of cotton on my account. He 
has agreed to furnish two hundred hogsheads 
of tobacco on freight at the low rate of forty-five 
shillings sterling per hogshead and five per cent 
primage; one hundred hogsheads of his ship- 



NATHANIEL GODDARD j 191 

ment he informs me is to be made by his friend 
Mr. S. Parkman, Jr., the balance of her cargo is 
to be procured on freight and we shall get as 
much of it consigned to you as possible, but as 
Alexandrians are in the habit of shipping to 
Amsterdam I expect some difficulty in filling 
her up. I contemplate making large purchases 
of cotton in Charleston this winter, therefore 
it will be convenient for me to receive as large 
an advance on my part of this cargo as it may be 
safe and convenient for you to make, which 
Mr. Motz assures me you will do. I wish all the 
freight money due on freight out, which is to 
be sterling, remitted to Samuel Williams, Esq., 
London, for my account. Such advance as the 
Captain may want for his disbursements in the 
port and refitting his vessel I hope you will 
furnish him, and such further advance as you 
shall feel safe in making upon my part of the 
cargo (which I hope will be to amount of the 
invoices or near it) I wish delivered to the 
Captain in specie, who will take it on board 
privately for safety. I hope you will afford all 
the despatch possible to the vessel. 

Mr. Goddard's eldest son, Frederic Warren 
Goddard, to whom allusion has been made in 
the foregoing letters, then a youth of nineteen, 



192 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

had sailed on the 21st of June of the preceding 
year (18.19) in the ship "Triton" for Liverpool 
with the purpose of making an extended journey- 
abroad. The trip was undertaken in the hope 
that it might result in the restoration of his 
health, which had been feeble since his childhood, 
and the object of much solicitude to his parents. 
His illness took the form of a distressing malady 
of the eyes occasioning frequent and violent 
attacks of severe pain; its exact nature is not 
known beyond the fact that it was of a grave 
character and of more than doubtful suscepti- 
bility to cure. At the time of the following cor- 
respondence he was travelling in Switzerland in 
the company of Mr. Alexander Trotter, Jr. of 
Edinburgh, whose acquaintance he had made in 
April of that year (1820) when the two young 
men were inmates of the household of Mr. 
Albert Eymar, a clergyman of Geneva. Extracts 
from Mr. Trotter's diary, sent by him to Mr. 
Goddard, show that since the 10th of August 
they had travelled, by diligence and on foot, 
from Lausanne to Neuchatel and Berne, and 
thence by way of Soleuse and Lucerne to Zurich. 
In the diligence to Soleuse they had made the 
acquaintance of Henry Crabb Robinson and 
in Lucerne were introduced by him to William 
Wordsworth and his travelling party, consisting 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 193 

of his wife and sister and Mr. Monkhouse. In 
the company of these pleasant friends they 
visited the neighboring places of interest in and 
about Lucerne, leaving on the 19th of August 
for Zurich. On the 22d, about five o'clock in 
the afternoon, they embarked in a small open 
boat for Richtenschwyl at the lower end of 
the lake. They had gone about three miles when 
a violent squall arose, a heavy wave struck the 
boat, and both young men leaped into the water 
in an effort to reach the shore, less than two 
hundred yards distant. In this Mr. Trotter 
was successful, but his companion, not so strong 
and encumbered by heavy clothes, sank and was 
drowned. 1 The first intelligence of his death 
reached his father on the 21st of October in a 
letter from Messrs. Welles & Williams of Paris 
to Messrs. J. & B. Welles of Boston, enclos- 
ing a communication dated August 23 from 
Messrs. Finsler, Freres & Co. of Zurich, bankers 
to whom Frederic Goddard had taken letters 
of introduction and credit. Mr. Trotter's letter 
which follows (although of earlier date) evidently 
did not reach Mr. Goddard until later. 

1 He knew how to swim, and even swam in the lake with Mr. Trotter 
a short time before the accident. 



194 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

» 

Geneva, September 3, 1820. 

Mr. Nathaniel Goddard. 

Sir, — It is with great grief that I am obliged 
to announce to you the melancholy accident that 
your son Frederic met with on the 22nd of August 
while making with me a trip in Switzerland, but 
I undertake the painful task in the hope that it 
may prove some consolation to his afflicted 
parents to be made acquainted with the details 
of the sad event which has deprived them of a 
son whose amiable qualities have endeared him 
to all who knew him. About five o'clock in the 
afternoon of the 22nd your son and I embarked 
at Zurich in a small boat intending to sleep at 
Richtenschaff, 1 a small town near the southern 
extremity of the lake. In less than half an hour 
after our departure we were overtaken by a vio- 
lent gale. We tried to reach the banks, but in 
vain, for the force of the wind plunged the boat 
headlong into the water. It was instantly filled 
at a distance of about 150 or 200 yards from the 
shore. We attempted to save ourselves by swim- 
ming, but your son unfortunately jumped from 
the side of the boat furthest from shore. He 
was further embarrassed by the weight of his 
clothes which must have rendered him incapable 
of making the exertion necessary to save himself. 

x Richtenschwyl. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 195 

Notwithstanding the greatest exertions the in- 
habitants of the village did not succeed in finding 
the body of your unfortunate son until the 
morning following, when it was brought to the 
house of Mr. Keller, who received me most 
hospitably and treated me most kindly during 
my stay at Kiissnacht near which the accident 
happened. It would gratify you extremely 
could you form any idea of the interest which all 
the neighborhood took in the unhappy fate of 
your amiable son, perishing so far from his 
native land in the generally tranquil waters of 
their lake. You would be equally gratified 
could you know with what kindness Mr. Keller 
undertook to oversee the necessary preparations 
for the interment, which took place on the 24th 
in all the modest simplicity which adorns a 
Swiss ceremony. I shall send you a copy of the 
beautiful and affecting discourse which was 
pronounced on the occasion by the clergyman 
of the village and which made a deep and sen- 
sible impression upon the hearers. The body 
of your son was interred in the churchyard of 
the village of Kiissnacht in a conspicuous situa- 
tion close to the northeast side of the church 
nearly opposite the gate of the burying ground. 
The funeral was attended by all the respectable 
inhabitants of Kiissnacht and by many gentle- 



196 ( NATHANIEL GODDARD 

men from Zurich and from the neighboring 
parishes, forming a procession of about one 
hundred persons. The village of Kiissnacht is 
pleasantly situated on the lake near Zurich in 
a fertile and beautiful country. It is much 
visited by strangers residing in town or passing 
through this interesting country. Their attention 
must be attracted by the simple monument of 
black marble which is to be placed on the spot 
where the remains of your dear son are deposited, 
and a short inscription will inform the passing 
traveller of his country and of the melancholy 
event that brought him to an untimely grave. 
Allow me as a friend of your dear son to offer 
my condolence to Mrs. Goddard and to your 
family and believe me to be with respect, sir, 
your obedient and devoted servant. 

Alexander Trotter. 

Under the same date the Rev. Albert Eymar 
writes as follows : — 

Mr. N. Goddard. 

Sir, — I yield to the necessity I feel of com- 
municating my grief and regrets to the father 
of our dear friend Goddard. You will participate 
with me in the relief I find in reverting to the 
time we had the happiness of possessing your 
amiable son; it is with this hope that I take the 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 197 

liberty of writing to you. Your son, dear sir, 
arrived at Geneva at the beginning of April 
with the intention of remaining in our city six 
weeks, after which he proposed travelling through 
Switzerland. Mr. and Mrs. Capt, with whom 
he became acquainted in Paris, engaged him to 
take lodgings at our house, thinking he would 
find with us those attentions that his health 
required and could pursue with greater facility 
the study of the French language. Our residence 
in the country, the happy change that had taken 
place in the disorder of his eyes, and especially 
the friendship that soon united us induced him 
to prolong his visit to four months. These four 
months, which to us appeared only as a moment 
and which we incessantly call to mind, taught us 
to appreciate the amiable and valuable qualities 
of your son. His goodness, his charming gayety, 
his amiability spread a charm and animation 
throughout our dwelling which have ceased with 
him. The cares we were called upon to bestow 
upon your child augmented our affection for 
him; we wished that the desire for instruction 
which he evinced in so great a degree might be 
satisfied otherwise than by studies which fatigued 
his eyes, and we consequently passed with him the 
greatest part of each day and every day disclosed 
to us something more to love. Our intercourse 



198 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

» 

became that of friendship. He had a thousand 
civilities for my wife ; he was pleased to give her 
lessons in the English language with that pa- 
tience and sweetness which characterized him; 
he was a third party in all our walks and when 
business sometimes carried us from home we 
were always sure to see our dear Goddard coming 
to meet us at our return. He desired a month 
since to visit our glaciers, and we determined 
to accompany him together with a young Scotch- 
man named Trotter who was placed under my 
care, and to whom your son was much attached. 
This excursion gave us the satisfaction of re- 
marking that a little stronger exercise so far 
from exhausting your son strengthened his 
health ; therefore when he expressed his wish to 
visit Switzerland during the present season I 
could not but approve the plan. He proposed to 
take this journey on foot and he departed with 
his friend Trotter who could not resist the plea- 
sure of becoming his companion. We were wait- 
ing their return, we were about to set out to meet 
them when the dreadful news of your son's death 
filled our hearts with dismay. I have requested 
Mr. Trotter to give you the particulars. I shall 
not revert to them. It remains for me, dear sir, 
to point out to you the consolations which I hope 
may mitigate your grief. I believe your son 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 199 

would in this world have had a painful path to 
tread. In looking to his restoration to health we 
abandoned ourselves to a visionary hope; al- 
though there was a great change for the better in 
his constitution since he had been in Europe, yet 
it was impossible for him to resolve with certainty 
on any profession and his disorder returned at 
intervals in all its violence. During his residence 
with us he experienced two of these excesses 
which lasted some days and his sufferings ex- 
cited in us the most painful feelings. After one of 
these attacks we urged him to consult Messrs. 
Butini and Maunoir, distinguished physicians of 
our city. We had the grief to perceive that these 
gentlemen had very little hope of effecting a cure 
in his eyes. Mr. Butini told us explicitly that it 
was necessary to fix an issue upon each arm of the 
young man, to keep them there for six years, and 
possibly he might recover. Your son was shocked 
at this proposal and preferred conforming himself 
to the advice of Mr. Maunoir, which tended to 
the same end by slower means. He placed 
blisters upon him which he continued until his 
departure for Switzerland. All the conversations 
of this dear young man evinced the certainty he 
felt that he could not recover. More than once we 
have seen his grief at the thought of his imagined 
uselessness in the world; the soul had desires 



200 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

i 

which the feebleness of his constitution would 

never have permitted him to satisfy. The activity 

of his mind, the anxiety to apply his talents to 

studies which might enable him to fill a useful 

station, all these happy dispositions made him 

look with dread on the prospect of the ill that 

obstructed his path. And indeed, sir, Providence 

in raising him from this earth has spared him a 

career of suffering. 

Enclosed with this letter was an extract from 
the "Gazette" of Zurich of August 25, in which 
was printed the funeral discourse of Rev. Mr. 
Hess, the pastor of Kussnacht. 

On the 21st of October Mr. Goddard writes to 
Messrs. Welles and Williams in Paris, as follows : 

Gentlemen, — This day the melancholy tid- 
ings of the death of our eldest son near Zurich 
was communicated to us through your particular 
attention. We cannot express our feelings on this 
occasion; none but parents can conceive of them. 
This son, from his infancy an invalid, had nearly 
arrived to manhood; it has always been the ob- 
ject of his parents to preserve pure his morals, 
to cultivate a love of virtue as well as a desire 
for information. His feeble health had been 
nursed and his life preserved until this fatal 



NATHANIEL GODDARD - 201 

accident, and with a hope of finding relief from 
his complaints he set out on a tour through 
Europe. In all the places he has visited he found 
friends and has spoken of them in the highest 
terms of gratitude and affection; they have sup- 
plied the places of parents, brothers and sisters, 
but he had no way of returning the favors he re- 
ceived; he felt and expressed in all his letters a 
sense of the obligations he felt under and particu- 
larly those attentions and kindnesses received 
from you, your families and friends. We also 
feel the obligation and it has made an impression 
on our minds never to be effaced. Can we ever 
repay those conferred on him far from home 
among strangers? It operates doubly on us; 
would to God we could return such kindnesses to 
you and yours as you bestowed on him. I know 
not how the state of his funds were, whether he 
has left anything unpaid in Geneva, or what 
expenses may have arisen in consequence of his 
death and the search after, and when found the 
burial of his body. It would give much con- 
solation to learn that his body has been decently 
interred in a Christian burying place. After the 
many and great favors we as parents and he as a 
son have received from you, can it be possible 
that we can ask more ? Yet we would venture to 
express our wishes. They are that you will make 



202 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

provision for the payment of all the pecuniary 
debts and just charges of every kind as well at 
Zurich as at Geneva. Mr. J. S. Capt and lady 
have been particularly friendly, and to them I 
must refer you for his former place of residence 
which was in the vicinity of Geneva, distant 
about three miles, in the family of a clergyman 
by the name of Eymar, of whom he has spoken 
in the highest terms : they treated him like a 
son and with all the affection and tenderness of 
parents; he was greatly attached to them and 
often spoke of them in the highest terms of friend- 
ship and love. Please reward them for his board, 
etc., if the same is not paid to them; we also feel 
under the greatest obligations. When you shall 
have discharged his debts we have one thing 
more to request, an all important thing to soothe 
the feelings of his mother and other friends; to 
wit, that everything that can be found of his, 
even the smallest scrap of paper, as well as his 
trunk, portmanteau, clothing, even those if 
found in which he was drowned, marked that we 
may know them, every trinket and ornament if 
any are to be found either in Zurich, Geneva, or 
elsewhere, may as soon as possible be carefully 
packed up, secured, and sent by the most direct 
conveyance to the United States for us. Spare 
no expense that is necessary to get them. Please 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 203 

also to give us every information you can pro- 
cure upon the subject relative to his residence 
and tour through Switzerland and Geneva, and 
every charge of yours shall be discharged and the 
gratitude of distressed parents will be felt and 
expressed by us. I shall have a vessel in Antwerp 
and will write there to Messrs. Mertens, Mossel- 
man & Co. and also to Mr. Williams of London 
to pay the amount of your drafts to discharge 
every pecuniary obligation, and you will please 
to draw on either. If the body of our son has been 
found and buried in the earth, please to order 
that grave stones with his age and such other 
inscriptions as Mr. Eymar may furnish, may be 
placed at the head and foot, that the place may 
be found if hereafter sought for; and if his 
remains are entombed please to have such a 
record made as that they may be found at any 
future period and furnish us with the inscription 
and record. His name was Frederic Warren 
Goddard, son of Nathaniel and Lucretia God- 
dard, born in Boston October 25, 1800, being in 
the twentieth year of his age. 

Boston, October 21, 1820. 

Mr. Albert Eymar. 

Dear Sir, — This day the distressing intelli- 
gence of the sudden and awful death of our eldest 
and beloved son reached us through the attention 






204 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

of our friends, Messrs. Welles and Williams of 
Paris. A few days previously we had received 
a letter from him dated 30th July at Geneva, 
written in good spirits and in which he was 
almost at a loss for words to express his gratitude 
to yourself and lady for your unbounded atten- 
tion to him, and the particular favors received 
caused him to love and respect you as parents. 
The correctness of his morals and his conduct 
through this life and his belief in and dependence 
on God for a future and blessed state of existence 
console us much; his love and respect for you 
and his obligations and gratitude are transferred 
from his to our breasts; we feel the obligation, 
we feel grateful in his behalf and we shall never 
forget amongst his friends yourself and lady. 
When we heard of this melancholy event his 
body had not been found, but we hope it has 
since been and decently interred. I have re- 
quested in this event, if buried in the earth that 
grave stones may be erected one at the head and 
one at the foot, to give his name, his age, time 
of his death, where he was born and of what 
parents, with such other inscription as you may 
furnish, and if entombed that a record may be 
made that a friend passing may find the spot. 
We have one more request to make, namely, that 
you will furnish us as well and correctly as you 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 205 

can with an account of him, his conduct and 
his travels, while in your view and within your 
knowledge ; also an account of this last and fatal 
journey, the name and place of abode if you can 
of the young gentleman who was accompanying 
him in this pedestrian tour and anything further 
that may occur to your mind that took place after 
you knew him. We shall also address a line to 
Mr. and Mrs. Capt, of whose particular kindness 
he has often and with gratitude spoken. 1 

In similar terms of grateful recognition and 
appreciation Mr. Goddard wrote to Mr. and 
Mrs. John S. Capt in Geneva, to Mr. Keller at 
Goldbach near Zurich (Appendix E), to whose 
earnest efforts were due the recovery and burial 
of his son's body and the placing of memorial 
stones to mark the spot and the event, to the Rev. 
Mr. Hess, the pastor of the church at Kiissnacht, 
and to Alexander Trotter, Frederic's devoted 
friend and surviving companion of the fateful 
journey. From each of them he received acknow- 
ledgments of his letters and renewed assurances 
of friendly and affectionate interest, Mr. Trot- 
ter's reply being dated at Godesberg, Prussia, 
October 1, 1821. 



1 Mr. Capt had already written to Mr. Goddard under date of Sep- 
tember 11. 



206 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

* 

My Dear Sir, — You will I am afraid think 
me very negligent in not having before this ac- 
knowledged your kind letter of the 9th of Novem- 
ber, which has not, however, been very long in 
my possession owing to its having been sent in 
mistake to my father who was then at Rome and 
who kept it until he saw me in person at Geneva. 
You are good enough to tell me that you will be 
happy to hear from me and to be informed by me 
of any particulars relating to your son during the 
time that I had the pleasure of being his com- 
panion. I have delayed complying with your 
request till I had once more visited the place 
where the sad accident happened to him, in order 
that I might be thus enabled to give you some 
details of what has been done with regard to the 
monument which has been placed over his grave. 
In this respect I have great satisfaction in assur- 
ing you that I found everything arranged in a 
manner which would gratify you could you be 
witness of it, as all your wishes seem to have been 
anticipated by Mr. Keller who kindly undertook 
the accomplishment of them. The monument, 
which is extremely simple, is placed against the 
church immediately over the grave. It consists 
of a black slab of marble, and bears in golden 
letters an inscription of which the following is a 
translation : — 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 207 

c'est ici que repose 
FREDERIC GUILLAUME 1 GODDARD 

DE 

BOSTON EN AMERIQUE 

UN JEUNE HOMME DE DIXNEUF ANS 

QUI LOIN DE SA PATRIE 

TROUVA DANS UNE TEMPETE 

AU LAC DE ZURICH 

LUTTANT CONTRE LES VAGUES SA MORT 

IL MOURUT A GOLDBACH PRES DE KUSSNACHT 

LE 22 AOUT 1820 

Another stone has been erected on the spot oppo- 
site the place where the body of your son was 
found, but of these Mr. Keller is, I understand, to 
send you, if he has not already done so, a detailed 
account. It will perhaps be more interesting for 
you should I dwell rather upon what happened 
to us during the time that we were together, as 
you will, I fear, be able to collect little information 
on this head from the scattered papers of your son 
which I sent you from Geneva. For this purpose 
I take the liberty of enclosing a short account of 
our tour which is merely an extract from my 
journal, but which may prove interesting to you, 
informing you of what we saw on our excursion 
and of the manner in which it was performed. 
You must from his letters be aware of the manner 
in which he lived at Geneva. I had been an in- 

1 An error for "Warren." 



208 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

mate with him in the house of Mr. Eymar since 
the month of April 1820, and a similarity of dis- 
positions and sentiments had during these few 
months formed between us a most intimate 
friendship. I consequently knew him well and 
from my own feelings can judge how severely his 
loss must have been felt by a family by whom 
he could not but be beloved. I am happy to 
observe the resignation with which you bear so 
great a loss. It must be a consolation for you to 
think that he has been taken from a world which 
from his weak constitution he could never have 
enjoyed. It seems indeed to be the interposition 
of a kind Providence to have freed him from a 
life which, had it been spared to him, would prob- 
ably have been a continuation of those sufferings 
which have preyed upon him from his earliest 
years. It must, however, be a much greater con- 
solation for you to reflect upon the exemplary 
manner in which he conducted himself while in 
this world. You may judge that his conduct was 
unaltered from the time he parted with you by the 
number of friends which he formed for himself 
in Europe, not one of whom but loved and es- 
teemed him and will deeply lament his loss. 1 
most sincerely thank you for your kind wishes for 
myself. Should any chance lead me to your side 
of the Atlantic (of which, however, at present 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 209 

there is not the smallest probability) I should be 
most happy to avail myself of the opportunity of 
seeing you. If, what is more probable, any of 
your sons should visit Europe, I need hardly say 
how happy it would make me to see them in 
England and to revive in them that friendship 
which I had for your Frederic. May I beg to 
present the united wishes of my family, who are 
now with me, for your happiness and that of your 
children. And believe me, my dear sir, 

Your sincere and affectionate friend, 

Alexander Trotter, Junior. 

Accompanying this letter are the extracts from 
Mr. Trotter's diary already alluded to, covering 
the days between the 10th and £2d of August. 

Wordsworth's "Elegiac Lines" are from the 
" Memorials of a Tour on the Continent in 1820 " : 



If foresight could have rent the veil 

Of three short days — but hush ! — no more ! 

Calm is the grave and calmer none 

Than that to which thy cares are gone, 

Thou victim of the stormy gale 

Asleep on Zurich's shore. 

Oh, Goddard ! what art thou ? A name, 

A sunbeam followed by a shade ; 

Nor more, for aught that time supplies, 

The great, the experienced, and the wise ; 



210 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

i 

Too much from this frail earth we claim, 
And therefore are betrayed. 

[Appendix F.] 

The following letters are further extracts from 
Mr. Goddard's business correspondence up to 
the time at which the continuous record ends: 

Boston, November 20, 1820. 

Messrs. Waln & Morris, 

Philadelphia. 
Gentlemen, — Your favor of the 13th of 
October giving account of sales, etc., was duly 
received, which I presume are correct. I am glad 
business is reviving; it has with us been very dull 
for a long time, and it has been truly unfortunate 
for your section of the country as well as ours that 
there has been no market abroad for flour and 
wheat, but the crops uniformly, so far as our 
knowledge extends, have been abundant. I 
contemplated being out of the Bank before 
this time and being able to attend to business, 
which would have been much for my interest, 
and I thought I had made up my mind so fully 
on this subject that nothing by way of persuasion 
could have kept me longer; but I have yielded 
to the solicitations of the stock holders and must 
remain another year. Please to accept my thanks 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 211 

for the barrel of most excellent sweet potatoes by 
the "Native," they are a luxury our part of the 
country does not produce and that is seldom to be 
obtained here in perfection. Please to give Mrs. 
Goddard's and my best respects to Mrs. Wain 
and accept yourselves my best wishes for your 
happiness. 

Boston, December 7, 1820. 

Amos A. Williams, Esq., 

Baltimore. 
Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 28th ult. is 
before me and I observe its contents. It is ex- 
tremely distressing to find our friends whom we 
highly respect in adversity and who are thus 
placed by the accidents of others and not by 
their own errors or negligence ; at the same time 
it affords a consolation, a sweet satisfaction 
which no enemy can deprive them of, that this is 
the sole cause and it is a foundation on which 
future prosperity will firmly stand; like gold 
tried in the fire it has stood the test, for I have 
never heard even the breath of slander whisper an 
unfavorable word against you. I know you must 
have suffered in your property and in your feel- 
ings, but I did not know that it had taken the 
greatest portion of your property; be assured I 
can and do sympathize with you in this distress- 



212 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

ing business, and also for those of your friends 
who have suffered with you. But the loss of 
property is not the heaviest loss we are liable to 
sustain, I know by experience ; at the commence- 
ment of the last war I was an underwriter to 
a considerable amount, having at that moment 
upwards of five hundred thousand dollars at 
hazard in vessels unarmed, surrounded by cruis- 
ers, and many in ports of our enemy, who, 
having been engaged in a long war, were armed 
at all points. Under these circumstances I could 
see nothing but the horror of ruin ; I fully realized 
poverty and all its attendant train of distresses, 
but I did not despair; I was fortunate and paid 
all the loss and suffered only about sixty thou- 
sand dollars. After the peace, say in 1817, 1818 
and 1819, on the decline of trade and depression 
in the value of every article I possessed I again 
suffered a loss of about as much more. Then sur- 
rounded by a numerous family of children, of 
whom I had ten in number looking to me for 
their education, I then thought I had suffered 
severely, but I was ignorant of what suffering was. 
On the twenty-first of June my eldest son, who was 
afflicted with ill health and for whom we had done 
everything that physicians here could prescribe, 
took a voyage to Europe, and after having travelled 
through Scotland, England and France and 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 213 

spent many months in the latter kingdom had 
acquired the language very perfectly and improved 
his health in a great degree. He then visited 
Geneva, spent much time in his studies, and 
from that city in company with a young gentle- 
man from Scotland he undertook a pedestrian 
tour through Switzerland. On the fatal 22nd of 
August last he was passing from Zurich across the 
lake of the same name, only one league in width, 
in a small boat, when a violent squall arose and 
rilled the boat and my son was drowned. The 
news of this fatal accident which has over- 
whelmed our family with grief reached me on the 
21st of October. Till this I found that I knew 
not what trouble was, this I found was adversity ; 
but we yet have much to be thankful for. We 
have nine children yet spared to us from whom 
we hope to reap much enjoyment. I would not 
trouble you with this long account, but "out of 
the abundance of the heart the mouth speak- 
eth." Be assured if I can in any way put busi- 
ness of my own into your hands that may afford 
you profit, or induce others to put theirs, it would 
give me a great deal of pleasure, for be assured 
my confidence is unabated. 



214 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Boston, December 28, 1820. 

Stephen Dutton, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — I have reflected on the subject 
of what we were conversing upon last evening, 
and conclude that under present circumstances 
it will not be for my interest to have a ship built 
agreeably to your agreement with my brother, 
with the little variation named in size, at New- 
buryport at a higher rate than twenty-two dollars 
per ton carpenter's tonnage and do the caulking 
myself. This will bring the vessel at nearly 
twenty-four dollars per ton, at which rate I am 
informed I can have one built at Medford which 
by being near home will save some expenses of 
transportation of stores, etc. It is true that some 
trifling expense may be saved in the spars and 
boats in Newburyport, but not to make it much 
of an object. And considering the saving you may 
make in the moulds, in the caulking and the ad- 
vantage to be taken of long days, I think you 
could afford to build her; but I will not urge the 
thing, for the mortification that would arise from 
having you lose money by building her would be 
more than a balance for any profit I can expect 
to derive from the vessel. Should you on further 
calculation think you could build one and let me 
know in two or three days, I see no obstacle to 
our contracting. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 215 

Mr. Goddard subsequently contracted, Febru- 
ary 2, 1821, with Mr. Dutton for the building of 
a ship at twenty-two dollars per ton, as aforesaid. 

Boston, January 27, 1821. 

Messrs. L. J. Mertens, Mosselman & Co. 
Gentlemen, — My last was of the 6th current 
via New York and informed you that the " Gram- 
pus" and "Ventrosa" had sailed for your port 
with full cargoes of cotton; the "Governor 
Brooks" has orders if disengaged on my letters 
reaching there to follow with a full cargo also, 
unless prime rice can be had at certain limits 
which I do not expect; in that case she will take 
a part of that article. I expect she will be ready 
to sail by the first of February, weather per- 
mitting, for your port. I requested you to remit 
Mr. Williams four thousand pounds from the 
"Grampus'" cargo and three thousand pounds 
from the "Ventrosa's" cargo, or authorize Mr. 
Williams to draw immediately on their arrival 
and to furnish specie for them to return with, 
to as great an amount as you were willing to 
advance on their cargoes in addition to the re- 
mittances to Mr. Williams, and at the same time 
was rather inclined to advise an early sale. I 
remain of the same opinion but at the same time 
leave it to your judgment. I shall want to the 



216 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

amount of twenty thousand dollars in specie 
sent by the " Governor Brooks," Captain Bishop, 
to New Orleans, that I may be enabled to load 
her there provided freight cannot be had on 
good terms ; the balance of hers as well as of the 
other cargoes I wish promptly remitted to Mr. 
Williams. Finding that five franc pieces con- 
tinue to be the tender in the United States until 
the 29th of April, these may be the best specie 
for remittance in all of my vessels. The "Dry- 
ade" has not yet arrived but I daily expect to 
hear from her. I hope you will see that these 
vessels meet good despatch. 

Beyond the letters relating to the case of the 
"Ariadne," there is no correspondence existing 
which throws any light upon the perils to mer- 
chant shipping arising from the difficulties with 
Great Britain in the troubled years preceding the 
War of 1812 or during the war itself, save one or 
two incidental references, as in the letter of De- 
cember 7, 1820, to Mr. Amos A. Williams; but al- 
lusion in the letters here given, covering the years 
1818 to 1821, seems to show that possible attack 
or at least annoyance from pirates was among 
the dangers included in the risks of a voyage. 
It would appear that Mr. Goddard's ships car- 
ried light armaments to meet such contingen- 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 217 

cies (see letter of March 6, 1819, to Captain 
Allen) and memoranda of later years (1843-44) 
show that he sold or otherwise disposed of " ships' 
guns, muskets, carbines, cutlasses and boarding- 
pikes," together with a considerable quantity 
of iron shot (cannon balls), being in part the 
armaments of the brig "Tartar" and the barque 
"Frederic Warren." 

No record of correspondence has been pre- 
served covering the periods between February 
1821 and December 1828, and between January 
1832 and December 1834, but the following ex- 
tracts dated at intervals during the intervening 
and succeeding years will serve to further indi- 
cate Mr. Goddard's business interests and activi- 
ties at home and abroad. Several of these contain 
frank statements of his financial condition and 
illustrate in some degree the embarrassment and 
stress to which New England merchants were 
subjected in the years immediately following 
the panic of 1837, and reveal the solicitude 
which he personally felt in regard to the meeting 
of his liabilities promptly as they accrued, in 
accordance with the standards of business as 
then conducted and with his own unswerving 
adherence to these in their strictest construc- 
tion. 



218 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Boston, September 2, 1829. 

Timothy Wiggin, Esq. 

Sir, — Your several favors of the 5th of 
August have been duly received and I noted 
their contents for which I thank you. I notice 
the observation in yours of the 6th ult. that 
"there is much want of confidence — this rests 
chiefly on the knowledge that business is gen- 
erally unprofitable." This is certainly correct 
so far as business is done on the capital of others 
and not on any solid property of their own, and 
this is too much the case, and the same want of 
confidence reaches here to the above description 
of persons and very justly. We have had many 
failures and some that I consider criminal in a 
great degree ; they filch from the owner property 
not subjecting themselves to a criminal suit that 
they dare not go on the highway and demand, 
and which would not be more unjust. I think 
we shall have many more failures, for I do not 
think that half the people trading are solvent. 
Business is bad indeed when we cannot make 
the freight for the vessels by loading them our- 
selves, and such has been the case the last season. 
Upon the whole my vessels are profitable, but 
they did not make half what they ought to have 
done. It may be acceptable to you to have me 
state occasionally the manner in which I con- 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 219 

template remunerating you for my drafts, etc., 
that you may not feel uneasy or risk anything 
with me in a pecuniary way, and I believe the 
statement will be found to be correct, or rather 
that the property is not overrated upon the 
whole which is on the way and destined to your 
hands. 

From the Trescott's voyage to Antwerp say £ 750 

Louisa at St. Petersburg by Mr. Mitchell 3500 

Columbia's last cargo by F. B. Gossler 1580 

Ventrosa's cargo at Bremen, a balance 2000 

Apthorp's cargo to Hamburg (my half) 2250 

Gov. Brooks' cargo of sugars 7000 

Grampus' cargo to Antwerp 3850 
Trescott's present cargo to Hamburg and 

freight say 5000 
" " Columbia's cargo, my half of sugars, un- 
certain, but presume 7000 

32930 

I have not yet received the "Columbia's" invoice 
but expect it hourly. I presume she left Havana 
very early this month and that news of her arrival 
at Bremen will reach you as soon as this. The 
" Grampus " and " Ventrosa " both arrived hereon 
the 18th current; I have not yet concluded what 
to do with them. I believe that business will be 
dull the ensuing season, but it may be otherwise. 



220 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Boston, November 20, 1829. 

Timothy Wiggin, Esq. 

Sir, — Since my last the " Louisa " has arrived 
here safe from St. Petersburg, and when dis- 
charged I shall send her to New Orleans where 
I have engaged two-thirds of her freight and the 
other third I am to put in for my own account. 
I am not quite certain but expect she will go to 
Havre; the proceeds of adventure and freight will 
be remitted to you. I have sent the " Apthorp " 
to St. Thomas, thence to Charleston for freight 
or to be loaded for owner's account. The " Ven- 
trosa " has gone to Charleston for freight and if it 
cannot readily be had she will load for my ac- 
count; I have funds there for the purpose. The 
"Beta" has gone to Savannah to load with rice or 
rice and cotton per contract for Antwerp. I have 
not yet heard of the arrival of the "Governor 
Brooks " at New York nor have I fully concluded 
what to do with her when she does get in if 
freight does not immediately offer for her at that 
place ; I may order her here to be ready to send 
to Havana for the first good white sugars of the 
new crop. I have nothing from the " Columbia " 
since she left Havana on the 3rd of September 
for Bremen. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 221 

Boston, March 10, 1830. 

Mr. George A. Goddard. 

Dear Son, — ... I am extremely grieved at 
Mr. Bruce's state of health 1 and fear from the cir- 
cumstance of this being a family complaint that 
he will not survive it; he will be a great loss to 
the community. Immediately on receiving in- 
formation of his state of health I made it known 
to some of his nearest friends, amongst them to 
his brother William at Bangor, who in reply to 
my letter states that he shall be here to-day or 
to-morrow to receive him. I expect hourly to 
see him, and as the wind is now strong at south- 
west his brother may be here soon. Lucretia 2 
has written a letter to Mary under date 30th 
December at Rome; all are well but they had 
a dreadful snowstorm that day such as had not 
been known for thirty years. I presume it put 
them in mind of our winter; they say nothing 
about returning home but I think it most time 
as "All spending and nothing earning ought to 
hasten their returning." I have this moment in 
my hand a letter from Mr. Dumont; 3 himself, 
his wife and child are all well. He has been for 

1 Mr. Bruce was at this time associated with his son, George A. 
Goddard, as supercargo. 

2 Mrs. B. A. Gould, then in Europe with her husband. 

3 Colonel John J. P. Dumont, a well-known politician and temperance 
advocate and a popular public speaker. Mr. Goddard had for some years 
the care of his property. 



222 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

some time in Portland attending on important 
business for the town of Hallowell with the 
Legislature who on account of their disorganiz- 
ing dispositions have not until very recently got 
organized so as to transact any business ; he has 
now returned and is chosen to deliver an address 
on the important subject of temperance which 
he says has excited much interest in that section 
of the country. On Monday last he received 
from the Secretary of the State of Maine the 
intelligence of the unexpected honor of being 
designated as one of the Aides of His Excellency, 
Governor Huntoon, with the rank of Lieutenant 
Colonel; this excludes him from the liability 
to military duty for life. Our family are all well 
and wish to be affectionately remembered to 
you. Business is excessively dull and will so 
remain whilst the tariff lasts. I suppose the girls 
have informed you that the boys * have parts at 
Cambridge; they have a Greek dialogue with a 
lad by the name of Lincoln 2 son to the Governor. 
"How we apples swim." 

Boston, May 12, 1830. 

Timothy Wiggin, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — The ship " Columbia" is loading 
with flour at Alexandria for Liverpool and goes 

1 His sons Nathaniel and Benjamin, of the class of 1831. 

2 Daniel Waldo Lincoln, Esq., of Worcester. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 223 

consigned to Messrs. George and John Smith; 
I have all ready to be shipped on board of said 
ship two thousand barrels of flour for my account 
and have requested the consignees to inform you 
of her arrival and remit any proceeds of adven- 
ture and freight less the ship's disbursements and 
a return cargo of salt ; this remittance will amount 
to two thousand pounds. I have nothing from 
my other vessels yet, but have on hand ready for 
them nearly eighteen hundred bales of cotton, so 
that I hope they will meet with but a little de- 
tention in Charleston where four of the brigs are 
bound, though amongst the bales are many 
round ones that it will not be profitable to ship 
in small vessels and may be shipped to Liver- 
pool in transient vessels that are larger. The 
"Ventrosa" is provided for at Havana and the 
Louisa at New Orleans; the latter vessel may 
have arrived there about this time as she left 
Havre on the 27th of March. I shall very soon be 
able to give you the destination of these vessels 
with the amount of their cargoes. Mr. Bruce 
who has for years been one of my agents in 
Charleston, and a very worthy one, has been sick 
and is now perfectly insane, and I fear will never 
recover. My son is at Charleston and will remain 
there until my vessels get away, when he will re- 
turn here. 



224 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

k 

Boston, December 27, 1830. 

Timothy Wiggin, Esq. 

London. 
Sir, — Since my last to you under date of the 
13th I have received circuitously advices of the 
loss of about four hundred boxes of sugar, burned 
at Antwerp by the fire caused by the cannonading 
and bombardment of the City. I have received 
no account direct from that place, nor did I re- 
ceive this until late in the evening of the 22nd 
ult., too late to write to you by the last packet; 
this is unfortunate but cannot now be helped. 
I was aware that there might be some hazard and 
have not shipped anything there since we learned 
of the Revolution in France. This loss may 
amount to three thousand pounds sterling, in 
consideration of which I shall take this into con- 
sideration and draw on you for so much less than 
I consider within your control. I have just learned 
that the "Trescott " is on her way home; she was 
at Elsinore on the 22nd of November and if she 
comes north about we may expect her daily. 

Boston, September 28, 1831. 

Timothy Wiggin, Esq. 

Sir, — Since my last of the 5th the " Governor 
Brooks" has proceeded for and arrived at Balti- 
more for a cargo of Maryland tobacco for Bremen 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 225 

and will probably sail thence in five days from 
this date. She goes consigned to the house of H. 
H. Meier & Co., who are ordered to remit the 
proceeds of her freight and our adventure to you, 
the probable amount of which we cannot with 
any degree of accuracy estimate. The " Gram- 
pus " sailed for Charleston for freight on the 10th ; 
her prospect now appears poor and her destina- 
tion thence is yet uncertain. The "Trescott " left 
New Orleans about the 10th with a full freight 
of cotton for Liverpool, but at a low rate, yet 
better than to go on owner's account. The " Ap- 
thorp," John Marshall, Master, sailed for India 
on the 24th current; the owners sent out specie 
as funds sufficient to load her if she succeeds to 
their wishes, but lest she be obliged to proceed 
to Calcutta, a dernier resort, we sent in her bills 
on you in favor of the captain at six months 
sight, approbated by your agent here, to the 
amount of two thousand pounds, which may or 
may not be used as circumstances may be. We 
are now fitting out the "Beta" for Calcutta, and 
may take the liberty to send out in the same 
manner bills on you for a part of her cargo. All 
the bills that may be used shall be seasonably 
provided for and we request that they may be 
honored when presented. The "Columbia" and 
" Ventrosa " are yet looked for and daily expected. 



226 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

In order that all the remittances for our vessels 
and adventures hereafter may be placed to the 
proper accounts and in proportion as we own, we 
state that the brigs "Beta" and "Apthorp" be- 
long half to Mr. B. A. Gould, and that one-third 
of the other half together with one-third of all 
the other vessels, to wit, "Columbia," "Louisa," 
"Trescott, "Governor Brooks," "Ventrosa" 
and " Grampus " belong one-third to Mr. George 
A. Goddard and the other two-thirds to Nathan- 
iel Goddard. Mr. G. A. Goddard, desirous of 
changing his line of business, has become owner 
as above, in order to become more familiar with 
it. In adventures it is our wish, whether par- 
ticularly specified or not, that all remittances 
from freights earned after this and all adven- 
tures may be placed to the several accounts as 
above stated and in the same proportions unless 
particularly requested otherwise. 

Boston, April 28, 1831. 

Messrs. Montgomery & Platt. 

Gentlemen, — ... We think our Charleston 
friends mistaken in their estimate of the rate at 
which we can afford to carry cotton to Liverpool 
under the present and past encumbrances on 
commerce. We could not maintain vessels by 
carrying cotton at half a penny per pound, from 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 227 

which you must have evidently perceived a 
general decline in it; those who had vessels on 
hand kept them moving in the hope of doing 
something better, or as the least of two evils, of 
hazarding their running for naught or rotting 
in the docks; very few new ones were built and 
these to outcarry those of former models, thereby 
to gain a little by this advantage. The building 
of this description was very keenly attended to 
and the prospect slim indeed until sundry favor- 
able occurrences happened, and such a combina- 
tion of them as may never occur again has raised 
this species of property nearly upon a level with 
that of other descriptions; but not yet equal to 
the manufacturing establishments, where they 
make instead of eight per cent from twenty-five 
to one hundred per cent and are strongly sup- 
ported in it by Government who can see but one 
side of the business. Let Government reduce the 
enormous duty on sail cloth, both thick and thin, 
on copper bolts, on iron, hemp, chain cables, and 
articles important in building and equipping 
ships; then we can keep up, if not make it very 
profitable, our shipping to a proper establish- 
ment, compete with foreigners and carry cotton 
at a half penny and live; but under its embar- 
rassed state it has been a losing business, and if 
not declined in the absolute number of tons, if it 



228 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

has been stationary it shows a comparative de- 
cline with everything else. Agriculture, commerce 
and manufactures might be made to be mutually 
beneficial to each other, but when one is enor- 
mously taxed to support the other the taxed one 
must inevitably decline. The causes combined 
to raise the value of commerce are numerous 
and such as may never occur again and such as 
are not and cannot be lasting. They began with 
the loss of British whalemen, the destruction of 
the rope seed and grain crops on the continent 
of Europe, and consequently an enormous rise 
in the price of oil and bread stuffs; the former 
stimulated our whaleship owners to purchase a 
great number of ships, this took from the freight- 
ing business many vessels, and the latter brought 
into requisition a great number of vessels 
to transport our enormous crops of bread stuffs ; 
we lost many more vessels at sea, etc., than is 
usual, for a large share of the vessels were grow- 
ing old and there was, as before stated, no en- 
couragement to build more; added to which the 
trade to India, Canton, and Spanish and Brazi- 
lian America became a little more encouraging. 
The disputes between the Belgians and the 
Dutch have prevented, as was anticipated, the 
Dutch Company from sending their ships to 
Java, etc., and a large number of ours have in 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 229 

consequence been substituted, say altogether 
round the Cape of Good Hope about ninety 
ships; some more have been sent to Canton and 
round Cape Horn. Add to all these an immense 
crop of cotton, sugar from Cuba as well as the 
United States which takes many of our vessels, 
tobacco and the great variety of other exports 
from New Orleans for foreign and domestic 
markets, all of which bring into use vessels of 
some description. These circumstances com- 
bined have given a spring to commerce for a 
season, and it does appear to us and not to us 
alone that in Charleston where we have hoped 
to do business there has been a kind of under- 
standing if not a combination amongst the mer- 
chants to keep down freights, and they have 
affected it so long that they have driven from 
their city many who are their best and most use- 
ful and profitable customers. They could not 
continue it without final bankruptcy, and they 
even now talk of distressing and alarming rates 
of freight. I have been so prolix that I cannot 
reasonably expect you will have patience to read 
it, but I could not forbear, as I have a feeling of 
interest for the success of Charleston greater 
than that of most any other place, as I have for 
a long time done business there; and in justice 
to them I must state in concluding that I have 



230 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

found them more honorable in their transactions 
than in most other places. It is a great stimulus 
to the preservation of our intercourse. 



Boston, January 2, 1832. 

Joseph Anderson, Esq. 

Sir, — The subscribers, owners of the brig 
" Grampus " of Boston, respectfully represent that 
said brig sailed from Salt Key in the West Indies 
with a cargo of salt for this place. On arriving 
near the coast she encountered several severe 
gales of wind and was several times driven off 
the coast with great loss and damage. The cap- 
tain, finding the brig in a sinking condition, 
both pumps hardly keeping her free, and crew 
nearly beat out with fatigue, and that a repeti- 
tion of such gales must inevitably cause a total 
destruction of vessel and crew, commenced 
throwing over cargo to lighten and ease the vessel 
and, having the decks swept, sails torn to pieces, 
both boats lost, and all hands hardly able to keep 
the vessel above water, in this state almost of 
despair determined on trying for the first port. 
He has been able to make Charleston, S. C, 
where very extensive repairs must be made which 
will cause great expense and take much time 
before she can proceed to her original port of 
destination. The object of this is to request that 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 231 

you will authorize or instruct the Collector of 
said port of Charleston to admit to entry at that 
port the remainder of the cargo at the present 
rate of duties, and thereby release us from the 
obligation of again encountering the winter 
storms on this coast at this inclement season. 

Boston, December 21, 1835. 

Thomas L. Thurston and Samuel Burch, 

Esqrs. 

Gentlemen, — In my last covering a power of 
attorney in great haste I think I promised to give 
you some particulars relative to the voyage of the 
"Ariadne," its origin, etc., but I kept no copy. 

In August 1812 this ship was in Baltimore; 
war had then I think been declared against 
Great Britain and my property was much in 
vessels and real estate. I was at the time an 
underwriter to a considerable extent and my 
property much depreciated, I had a great family 
and destruction stared me in the face. Though I 
never for a moment despaired of fulfilling all 
my contracts, though loss after loss almost daily 
occurred by captures and detention of property 
abroad, my mind was fully made up to pay the 
last farthing even should it leave my family 
penniless. A gleam of hope appeared that we 
could use our vessels; and Captain Farris, for- 



232 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

merly of the firm of Farris and Stocker who had 
lost their all and failed, found a friend in Mr. 
William Parsons who offered to assist him in 
some kind of business that should be thought to 
promise him a little for the support of his family. 
Captain Farris was then about sixty years of age 
and is yet living, and within a year or two has 
been a Representative in the General Court from 
Newburyport. It was suggested to Mr. Parsons 
lhat a voyage might be made to Cadiz to advan- 
tage with flour under Admiral Sawyer's license 
so-called; Mr. Parsons observed that although 
he was opposed to the war and the measures 
then pursuing, he would do no act that should 
be thought to be unlawful for the prospect of any 
profit whatever. His brother, our late Chief 
Justice, was consulted by him, whether the 
paper purporting to protect American vessels 
bound to neutral ports from capture by British 
cruisers was lawful; the Judge clearly and un- 
hesitatingly pronounced this lawful pursuing a 
voyage to a neutral port, that it amounted to a 
forbearance to capture by cruisers under his 
command and recommendation to other of His 
Majesty's cruisers to let all such pass unmolested. 
All difficulty appeared at an end, for we had 
Mr. Gallatin's word, indirectly given at a dinner 
table verbally, that to use such protection was 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 233 

not only lawful but laudable, for while it relieved 
our country by carrying off its surplus produce 
it strengthened it by bringing into it the sinews 
of war. All doubts of its illegality being removed 
the voyage was made up, more to relieve Captain 
Farris than as a source of much profit. A number 
of highly respectable merchants contributed to 
make up the cargo, the vessel then in Baltimore 
was to proceed round to Alexandria and com- 
plete her cargo (she then had on board about one 
thousand barrels of flour) which she did in good 
faith. Congress well knew of this trading and 
refused to pass a law prohibiting it and no one 
doubted of its being allowed, and as a proof of 
its being considered lawful, after the surplus crop 
of produce had gone to market Congress did 
pass a law prohibiting it; amongst the rest it was 
said Mr. Madison's crop of tobacco was pur- 
chased and shipped under one, but of this I know 
nothing. The vessel loaded and sailed and on or 
about the 15th of October the same year she 
was captured by the U. S. Brig of War "Argus," 
was sent into Philadelphia, there libelled, tried 
in Judge Peters' Court, cleared, and bond given 
for the property and it was restored (I perhaps 
ought not to make this public). The Judge saw 
the injustice of this vexatious capture and de- 
tention in so strong a light that he gave an Ad- 



234 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

miralty pass to screen her from any cruisers. 
Messrs. Horace Binney and Joseph Hopkinson 
of Philadelphia were my counsel, and these 
gentlemen knew of the Admiralty pass, but 
thought I had better not name it, and I never 
have until now. This shows how our Courts at 
the time viewed it; but after the appeal to the 
Circuit Court this judgment was reversed and 
we appealed to the Supreme Court. Judge 
Story found some decision under some ancient 
king of Great Britain which was construed to 
embrace the case, and the vessel and cargo were 
finally condemned and the bonds paid. Ought 
it not to be borne in mind that every American 
merchant could not be expected to know all the 
decisions in a British Court of Admiralty? It 
may be well to observe that the ship sailed again 
from Philadelphia and performed her first con- 
templated voyage without molestation by any 
cruisers; no illicit business was done or ever 
intended to be done, but she was subsequently 
condemned though the judges did not all agree; 
but there was a majority on the Bench who did. 
When I first petitioned Congress for a relief it 
was for a moiety of the amount, to wit, so much 
as was paid into the United States Treasury 
only; at this time the Treasury was not over- 
flowing or perhaps they would have granted the 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 235 

prayer of my petition; they have used this money 
while they needed it and I have waited for justice. 
... Is there any impropriety in petitioning for 
the whole ? I think you will find amongst the 
papers in Dr. May's possession Messrs. Pinck- 
ney and Purviance's opinion (the former I think 
was the Attorney General of the United States) 
of the legality of using such license. I have a 
copy of the paper called the license used by the 
"Ariadne " and if it would be of any use and none 
is found amongst the papers I will forward it. 
It is also fortunate for us that the amount of 
captures and condemnations for the above 
heinous sin is very small; I believe but one that 
stands on so fair a ground; one or two others 
out of their latitude were captured and perhaps 
justly condemned. On my first application to 
Congress my petition was committed to the 
Committee of Ways and Means, of which Mr. 
Lowndes of South Carolina was Chairman, the re- 
port to the House was in my favor and a bill was 
brought in of which I have a copy; the House 
went into a Committee of the Whole and it was 
decided against the report of the Committee. I 
have also in my possession a copy of my petition 
to Congress setting forth my reasons in support 
of my claim, etc. ; if wanted it shall be forwarded, 
and if you have not a copy it may be useful. 



236 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Boston, April 7, 1836. 

Abbott Lawrence, Esq. 

Sir, — I have a petition to Congress which 
will be presented by my agents Colonel Burch 
and Thomas L. Thurston, Esq. which probably 
you may see presented and may possibly recollect 
some of the circumstances when I relate them to 
you. It is in the case of the ship "Ariadne" and 
cargo sailing under a paper called a "protection" 
from Admiral Sawyer against capture by his 
squadron. This voyage was commenced with a 
view of assisting Captain Farris of Newburyport 
who had been unfortunate and had failed in his 
business. His particular friends were William 
Parsons, Esq., Messrs. Thomas C. Amory & Co., 
Messrs. James and Thomas H. Perkins, Samuel 
G. Perkins & Co., Thomas Parsons, and Samuel 
May, Esqs. with myself owner of the ship. Before 
this voyage was undertaken by the parties the 
late Judge Parsons was consulted and gave his 
opinion of the innocence and lawfulness of the 
voyage; the paper purported to be only a for- 
bearance to capture, it was not liberty to visit a 
British port or afford them supplies. Congress 
knew this trade was carrying on, and refused 
to pass a law to prohibit it although solicited 
by President Madison to do it. Mr. Gallatin was 
consulted who pronounced it not only lawful but 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 237 

laudable, as it carried from the country the sur- 
plus of produce and in return brought money and 
sinews of war. The opinions of Messrs. Pinckney, 
the first law officer in the Union, and Mr. Pur- 
viance of Baltimore were known and were after- 
wards given in writing in favor of the trade. 
Congress afterwards at the second request of the 
President, after the surplus produce of the coun- 
try had gone to market, passed a law prohibiting 
that trade and the petitioners never after at- 
tempted it. This vessel was captured by the 
United States brig "Argus," sent into Philadel- 
phia, tried in the District Court and cleared, and 
so positive was the Judge of the lawfulness of the 
transaction that he gave an Admiralty Pass to 
prevent any further detention by cruisers of the 
United States. This ship sailed from Alexandria 
with a cargo of flour September 12, bound to 
Cadiz; the vessel and the cargo were owned 
wholly by the petitioners and went solely on their 
account. There was no suspicion of its being 
enemy's property or that it was bound to an 
enemy's port or shipped with an intention of 
promoting any of his objects or views ; the cause 
of condemnation was that it was an enemy's 
license, a forbearance to capture, and the whole 
offence was that she had that paper on board. 
The allied armies were not at that time in the 



238 NATHANIEL GODDAED 

neighborhood of Cadiz and did not draw their 
supplies from that quarter. After a full hearing 
in the Court before named the Judge pronounced 
in favor of the innocence of the transaction, or- 
dered the property to be restored and the cap- 
tors to pay damages. The captors appealed to 
the Circuit Court where the decree was reversed ; 
from this we appealed to the Supreme Court of the 
United States where she was finally condemned, 
I understand by barely a majority. Judges 
Marshall and Washington were in the minority. 1 
(Memo. Sent the original petition in lieu of 
this letter.) 

Boston, September 5, 1836. 

Messrs. T. Wiggin & Co. 

Gentlemen, — Since my last I have coppered 
my barque and I find the copper to be very good. 
This vessel is called for my deceased son who was 
drowned in Lake Zurich in 1820, "Frederic 
Warren," burthen three hundred and sixty-three 
tons, is a large carrier, sailed for Calcutta last 
Friday evenings William W. Johnson, Master, 
Warren Gould, supercargo. She has on board a 
stock of $260,000, the supercargo puts on board 
six hundred tons at $20 per ton, perhaps from 
one to two hundred tons transient freighters. I 

1 The court held that the sailing under the enemy's license constituted of 
itself an illegal act, which subjected the property to confiscation whatever 
the object of the voyage or the port of destination. 2 Wheaton, 143. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 239 

have received from your agent Mr. Hooper cer- 
tified bills to amount of five thousand pounds, 
and a credit of five thousand pounds wherein the 
captain is authorized to negotiate in case any 
accident should happen to the supercargo. I 
have also put on board $10,000 in specie. 

Boston, April 5, 1837. 

Messrs. T. Wiggin & Co. 

Gentlemen, — In order to be sure of a safe 
remittance reaching you, as I previously in- 
formed you I shipped some choice cotton with 
orders to have the same sold and proceeds paid 
over to you promptly, but the great panic in 
Liverpool has caused such a decline in price as 
will, I expect, produce a considerable loss, but 
it may be less than I might sustain by purchasing 
bills. At any rate, if a sacrifice must be made, it 
is proper and just that the debtor should make it 
and I am willing. A business life of almost 
fifty years has never before found me so delin- 
quent as I have been in my transactions with 
you; but such a state in the mercantile com- 
munity I believe never before existed. 

Boston, August 13, 1838. 

Capt. William W. Johnson. 

Dear Sir, — You being Master of the barque 
"Frederic Warren " now in this port ready for sea 



240 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and bound for Calcutta, will please to proceed to 
that port with all possible despatch. The vessel 
will be consigned to Mr. Horatio A. Lock who 
will take the passage with you as supercargo. 
He is to furnish a return cargo for the barque 
with as much despatch as possible, not exceeding 
sixty working days, and when loaded you are to 
return directly to this port. I wish you to take 
out your ballast, have the vessel ready to receive 
the cargo as it is furnished, and see that the same 
is stowed in the best manner. Mr. Lock is to 
furnish merchandise for cargo in such propor- 
tions of weight and measurement as will both 
load and fill the vessel. I estimate the barque's 
capacity at about ten hundred and twenty tons, 
but in order to get in the greatest quantity it will 
be necessary to attend very carefully to the stow- 
age, and fill every small breakage which cannot 
otherwise be filled with hides or gunny-bags 
which Mr. Lock will furnish. . . . After you 
have taken in a sufficient quantity of saltpetre 
and heavy goods to ballast the vessel, please to 
distribute it throughout the whole length so as 
not to have an undue proportion of ballast or 
cargo in either end or in the middle, which might 
strain the barque as her length is great. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 241 

Boston, September 7, 1838. 

Capt. Joseph Lindsey. 

Dear Sir, — The ship "Trescott" under your 
command is now ready for sea, bound on a voy- 
age to Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans, by virtue 
of a contract with Mr. J. Adams Welsh who goes 
out with you as supercargo for the voyage. . . . 
If contrary to my expectations Mr. Welsh should 
be incapacitated by accident from attending to the 
business of the voyage, you are empowered to 
employ one of three parties designated in the 
letters of credit furnished to him to accomplish 
the object of the voyage, under the precise limits 
and restrictions which extend to him; and you 
will use your best judgment in such case, ascer- 
taining as well as you can the standing of the 
houses and employing the ones which will be 
most likely to do you justice. If from the high 
price of coffee you should be unable to load the 
vessel under my contract with Mr. Welsh, please 
to see the above named houses as well as others 
and obtain the best business you can for the ship. 

Boston, September 7, 1838. 

Capt. Edward C. Nickels. 

Dear Sir, — We have chartered the barque 
"Tartar" to Messrs. Lewis Ashmun and George 
J. Foster for a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope 
and thence back to Boston by way of Europe, 



242 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

and you are requested to proceed on said voyage 
under their instructions. We understand your 
first port of destination to be Sidney in New 
South Wales where you are to discharge your 
outward cargo. . . . And you are to be under 
the directions of the charterers whether to go to 
one or more ports in India before you sail for 
Europe, and in Europe you are likewise to be 
governed by their instructions in all things 
within and in conformity with the letter and 
spirit of the charter-party herewith committed to 
you. 

Boston, November 20, 1838. 

Messrs. T. Wiggin & Co. 

Gentlemen, — . . . All my business through 
life has not caused me so much uneasiness as my 
business with you during the last two years. 
The injustice I have done you by not being 
punctual has grieved me exceedingly and gnawed 
on me like a cancer. It will never be blotted 
from my memory. Never before did I ask a 
creditor to wait an hour; but a combination of 
circumstances that cannot be enumerated com- 
bined to produce this fatal result. It was not for 
want of property or a disposition to make large 
sacrifices in order to accomplish the object, but 
a total inability to make it convertible to the 
desirable object. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 243 

Boston, January 27, 1839. 

Messrs. T. Wiggin & Co. 

Gentlemen, — Unforeseen and very unex- 
pected occurrences have delayed my remittance 
to you as a commencement of a new account 
which I have been very anxious to do, but I now 
fear that it will be delayed some time longer, to 
my great mortification, in consequence of some 
losses not expected and to a considerable amount, 
but which can only affect me temporarily; among 
which I have suffered one in particular of an ex- 
tremely sensitive nature and attended with great 
disappointment. This, however, is the last of 
consequence to which I am vulnerable. I have 
met, suffered and paid losses (principally by 
failures) since the year 1828 to the amount of 
upwards of $300,000 for which I shall probably 
receive nothing. But I thank God that it is no 
worse. I still feel that I have enough left to make 
me perfectly independent except at the moment 
of sudden calls, but for which I shall be obliged 
to make no more sacrifices, though I have pre- 
viously been obliged to do so in order to meet 
them. I have never promised what I did not 
mean to perform and I anticipate the pleasure 
before long of having a respectable account with 
you founded on a sufficient capital of my own. 



244 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Boston, March 27, 1839. 

Messrs. . Leland Bros. & Co. 

Gentlemen, — Your favor of the 21st is 
before me with an invoice of twenty-six whole 
and ten half casks of rice by the " Cervantes " an- 
nexed. I regret the bills of lading did not make 
it deliverable as requested on my wharf; the 
expense of wharfage and truckage will be more 
than the profit upon it. In addition I have other 
reasons for not receiving any goods of my im- 
portation elsewhere. I have a wharf worth 
$350,000 and it is important to have my portion of 
business at it; all the wharves are warring 
against each other and the only inducement to 
importing it here is lost unless handled at my own 
wharf. I will thank you hereafter to let this be an 
insuperable objection to shipping anything to me 
here; if they will not contract to land it on my 
wharf from the vessel I do not wish the article 
sent to me. 

Boston, August 14, 1839. 

William H. Stowell, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 12th is at 
hand by which I notice the safe arrival of the 
schooner "Frances" and that the whale lines are 
landed in good order. Mr. Webber is at work on 
the tarred cordage, and from the best hemp, he 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 245 

says, which he has seen this twenty years, and I 
will have none other manufactured. I shall not 
do as I have myself known my competitors to do, 
purchase musty hemp which I would not venture 
to put into anything but cotton balerope. But 
time will develop all these things. The only rea- 
son why I could not furnish the tarred cordage 
sooner was that I would not risk my reputation 
on any hemp then to be found in Boston. The 
agent of the Milldam Company must not under- 
sell us; we can furnish it as low as they, and I 
will authorize the sale of mine as low as they 
offer theirs until it goes down to the cost, and 
then continue it there if necessary as long as you 
will sell it for me, if I live these ten years. . . . 
When others choose to sell at less than the cost 
they may go on ... If they buy poor outshot 
or half clean hemp, they can, for a time, until it 
is known, furnish it at a less price ; but I will not 
do this — I will have good or none. 

Boston, October 12, 1839. 

Messrs. Holford, Brancker & Co. 
[New York] 
Gentlemen, — When I wrote you on the 28th 
of August I had no idea of being compelled to 
vary from my intentions therein expressed; in- 
deed I felt confident of coming fully up to the 
mark, but I have been much disappointed. I 



246 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

shipped to New York for sale the goods by the 
"Frederic Warren" to the amount of fifty thou- 
sand dollars cost, and urged the sale of the same 
strongly, and I thought that it would have been 
effected so as to enable me to remit a considerable 
amount. I have drawn on the credit of these 
goods ten thousand dollars, leaving an amount 
of forty thousand dollars in goods at cost. But 
my friend has been unable to dispose of but very 
few; these, however, shall be holden there until 
you are paid. How my funds in England will 
turn out it is impossible for me to know, but I 
trust it will be quite as well as I have stated. I 
have ordered these remitted to Messrs. Holford 
& Co., London. I have also funds at the South 
which will be going forward very soon, which 
if they should be all sent forward soon enough 
would more than pay the debt. I have on hand 
about fifteen thousand dollars in Treasury notes 
which are here worth par in specie. There is no 
exchange on England here which I dare to buy, 
and I am also afraid to purchase drafts on New 
York to buy the bills there, lest, before I could 
get my funds on, the New York banks should 
suspend payment and exchange rise to ten or 
fifteen per cent above its present rate. I have 
tried every mode in my power to send you on 
funds, but as yet to very little purpose. In what 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 247 

manner can I invest these fifteen thousand dol- 
lars ? At what rate can sixty day bills on England 
be bought with New York bills if I should pur- 
chase a draft on New York and send on the 
funds ? Will you please inform me ? I am ex- 
tremely anxious to do all I can and as fast as I 
can, but times like these I neyer saw before. 
You are perfectly safe, but that does not satisfy 
me and it would be strange if it did you. I have 
known something of business for nearly sixty 
years, but have seen nothing to compare with the 
present times. All I can add is that no exertion 
on my part shall be wanting to pay your demand. 

Boston, March 20, 1840. 

John A. Merle, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 7th current 
came to hand by the last mail, for which you 
will please accept my thanks. I am extremely 
sorry to learn that your prospects are not so 
bright as they were, but I feel the force of every 
word of your letter, as in the description of your 
misfortunes and their causes you have described 
my own precisely. Nearly all my property is in 
real estate, totally useless to me in the payment 
of debts, and upon which I did not calculate at 
all for this purpose. A few years since I had a 
sum in personal estate equal to all my wants and 



248 , NATHANIEL GODDARD 

to enable me to make all the improvements on the 
real estate which I thought might be necessary, 
But it was then flood tide and near high water 
with me; and the tide began to ebb, new channels 
for draining opened in every direction, and it 
seems that they could not much longer be sup- 
plied. Since the year 1828 I have lost personal 
property by misfortunes, and by failures of others 
principally, upwards of three hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, and at times it has seemed almost 
impossible to meet them; even five thousand 
dollars has appeared to threaten to turn the scale. 
But I yet survive and have set out, at seventy- 
three years of age, to meet if possible every debt 
I owe without contracting a new one ; and I hope 
I shall not be crushed in the undertaking. I can 
sympathize with you most sincerely, and I have 
hopes that when it shall again be flood tide for us 
both I may yet do a business with you which 
shall prove mutually beneficial. My confidence 
in your high and honorable standing is not in the 
least impaired. I have suffered beyond the power 
of description to those who have not felt the 
same, both by night and by day, and probably 
more so from the fact that at the commencement 
of business I set out with the determination to 
allow no one to ask a second time for money due 
them; and I adhered to this rule most rigidly for 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 249 

nearly fifty years. Accept my best wishes for 
your future prosperity and happiness. 



Boston, July 20, 1840. 

John A. Merle, Esq. 

Sir, — Your favor of the 10th inst. came to 
hand in due season. It must be gratifying to you 
to be assured of the confidence of your creditors 
by their unanimous wish that you should be ap- 
pointed sole syndic to the estate of Messrs. 
John A. Merle & Co. I have no doubt but in 
resuming business with your experience you will 
be successful, and I shall endeavor to contribute 
my mite towards it. The apparent loss of seven- 
teen years of your life will not, I feel confident, 
prove a total one ; but it will be the means of lay- 
ing the foundation of a firmer fabric. It is an ex- 
tremely dull season of the year with us and future 
prospects look dark and gloomy. During the past 
year I have suffered in property by failures and 
endorsements to the amount of more than ninety 
thousand dollars; and a great part of it coming 
upon me suddenly has temporarily cramped my 
available means, as so large a proportion of my 
property is in real estate and consequently not 
convertible; I have, however, made good pro- 
gress in extricating myself. 



250 'NATHANIEL GODDARD 

Boston, March 18, 1841. 

John A.. Merle, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — Yours of the 3rd came to hand 
on the 16th current and I am much disappointed 
at the tenor of it. I did hope, and with much con- 
fidence too, that the Texas note would have been 
paid long before this time, and I feel the disap- 
pointment the more on account of my want of 
money. ... I feel the more alarmed as I per- 
ceive that the Texan government have it in con- 
templation to pass a law preventing the collection 
of any foreign debts for the term of five years, 
which in my case would be beyond my lifetime. 
I am old, but I may possibly live to reach New 
Orleans and Texas ; and if not I may as well die 
there or ^>n the way there as here; and if it is 
found necessary I will try it in the autumn if I 
live, and see if something cannot be done, or lose 
my life. The keeping back of this amount is a 
serious disappointment to me in addition to my 
other losses. I hope you will do all you can to 
hasten payment of the note above alluded to and 
thus prevent the necessity of my leaving home 
at this period of my life. 

The foregoing business letters show in general 
the extent and manner of Mr. Goddard's com- 
mercial dealings so far as they relate to his own 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 251 

ships. There are, however, from time to time 
allusions in his correspondence to shipments or 
ventures in other vessels for his account, a charter- 
party of the ship " Esther," Boston to Valparaiso, 
in which he was interested in December, 1821, 
showing that he was concerned in the South 
American trade at that time. He was also a buyer 
of rice through the Messrs. Leland at Charleston 
and was an importer of China teas and Calcutta 
goods. His dealings in Russia and Manila hemp 
were large and he at one time controlled the 
market for this staple in Boston. His importations 
of this were largely for the manufacture of cord- 
age, spun yarn, etc., which was made up by 
Messrs. John Webber & Son at their rope walk 
in Roxbury and sold at Charleston, New Bedford 
and other ports. 

In April, 1833, Mr. Goddard bought of the de- 
visees of Edmund Hartt the property known as 
Constitution Wharf, originally "Hartt's Ship 
Yard," to which allusion is made in the Narra- 
tive. It is described as "bounding westerly on 
Lynn or Ship Street, now Ann Street, and easterly 
on the sea or channel, and extending to low 
water mark, with dwelling house (see Narrative), 
buildings, wharf and flats." The price paid was 
twenty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Goddard sub- 
sequently moved his counting-room to this 



252 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

wharf, his offices being in the building nearest 
the street, but close to the dock, a memorandum 
of July 18, 1842, stating that he was paid for 
damage caused by the schooner "Lucy" of Wis- 
casset running her jib boom through his store and 
counting-room. In May, 1843, he began the re- 
building and extension of the wharf. It was his 
purpose to construct it with straight sides for 
greater facility in loading his vessels, but this, it 
was found on trial, left too narrow a base for the 
superstructure, and he was compelled to relay the 
foundations with a diving-bell, sloping the sides 
and building a pile wharf around it to give the 
straight sides required. In 1846 he built three 
brick stores on this wharf. 

In March, 1845, Mr. Goddard sold Union 
Wharf, " including the part formerly known as 
Rhoades Wharf," to David Loring and Sewel 
F. Belknap; for this the purchase price in cash, 
notes and mortgages assumed by the purchasers 
was $301,824. 

In 1848 he sold Constitution Wharf to Elipha- 
let Baker and George Hill for $200,000. There 
were mortgages on this property amounting to 
$38,500, and for the remainder of the purchase 
money he received stock of the Portsmouth 
Steam Mills of Portsmouth, N. H. These mills 
were then engaged in the manufacture of lawns, 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 253 

of which it was estimated they would produce 
2,500,000 yards a year, the price for which in the 
New York market was approximately thirteen 
cents a yard. The business turned out to be not 
as represented, and a large part of the stock was 
a total loss to his heirs. 

With these transactions the record of Nathaniel 
Goddard's business life closes. Of its remaining 
years (1848 to 1853) we know little beyond the 
fact that for much and perhaps most of this time 
his strength and vitality were seriously impaired 
by illness and for a long time he was able to go to 
his counting-room only at rare intervals. 

In April, 1843, Mr. Goddard had sold his estate 
on Summer Street to Andrew Carney, 1 and passed 
the ensuing summer with his family in Dor- 
chester, boarding in the house of Captain Eaton. 
In the autumn of that year he moved to No. 22 
(now No. 60) Pemberton Square, owned by 
Nathaniel Hammond, Esq., and in August, 1847, 
he purchased the property. Pemberton Square 
was at this time an attractive place of residence, 
and contained the houses of many families of 
wealth and refinement. In the centre, opposite 
to where the Court House now stands, was a 
small oval park, enclosed by an iron fence. Here 

1 35,234^ square feet for $91,085.84, being at the rate of two dollars 
and fifty cents per square foot and $3000 for the building. 



254 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

he continued to live during the remaining years 
of his life. There were at this time five children 
living at home; three unmarried daughters, 
Louisa, Georgiana and Frederica, and two sons, 
Nathaniel and Benjamin. The eldest daughter, 
Lucretia Dana, had been married many years 
before (1823) to Benjamin Apthorp Gould, in 
early life the well-known Head Master of the 
Boston Latin School, and in later years a mer- 
chant. In February, 1835, Frances Dana, the 
fourth daughter, became the wife of Henry White 
Pickering, who was for some years in Mr. God- 
dard's counting-room and later (1845) a stock 
and exchange broker, succeeding to the business 
of George A. Goddard, his brother-in-law, on his 
death in that year. In November of the same 
year (1835) the second and third daughters, 
Henrietta May and Mary Storer, were married 
on the same day, the former to Edward Wiggles- 
worth 1 of Boston, and the latter to Henry Weld 
Fuller of Augusta, Maine. Mr. Fuller, then a 
young lawyer, soon afterwards removed to Boston, 
where he later became Clerk of the United States 
Circuit Court. In May, 1841, George Augustus 
Goddard was married to Cornelia, daughter of 

1 Mr. Wigglesworth, who had graduated from Harvard College in 
1822 with the first honors of his class and subsequently studied law, was 
never engaged in active practice, but gave his time and attention largely 
to educational and philanthropic pursuits. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 255 

Francis Amory, Esq., of Boston. February 2, 
1848, Georgiana was married in the Pemberton 
Square house to John Adams Blanchard, a 
Boston merchant, 1 and June 5, 1849, Frederica 
Warren, the youngest daughter and child, to 
William Storer Eaton. 

Fortunately for both parents and children, the 
homes of the latter as they successively married 
were established in Boston or its immediate 
neighborhood, and the family circle, thus happily 
enlarged, remained save in one instance un- 
broken until Mr. Goddard's death. On the 15th 
of May, 1845, his son George, while driving to 
Milton, where he made his summer home with 
his father-in-law, Mr. Amory, was thrown from 
his chaise at the corner of 'Northampton Street 
and Harrison Avenue and instantly killed. No 
one was with him at the time,^his sister Lucretia, 
who was then living in Roxbury, reaching him 
soon after the accident; but it is conjectured that 
he fell in endeavoring to recover the end of a 
broken rein, parted at the buckle, as the horse 
suddenly turned the corner of the street. 

No sketch of the family would be complete 
which failed to mention the lifelong friendship 
which has existed and been strengthened by 

1 Of the firm of Blanchard, Converse and Harding, dry goods com- 
mission merchants. 



256 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

ties of intermarriage between Mr. GoddarcTs 
household and that of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas 
Wigglesworth. The latter had lived for many- 
years at No. 19 Franklin Place, 1 and the inter- 
course was one of constant and undeviating re- 
gard. All family gatherings within the memory 
of this generation have included as a matter of 
course the household from Franklin Place and 
later from No. 1 Park Street. 2 

Mr. Goddard's last illness, a cancer of the 
stomach, was of long duration, and its gradual 
advance excluded him by degrees from the 
active participation in business affairs, to which 
he had given his strength and vitality for so many 
years. It is difficult to determine the time at which 
the progress of the disease finally compelled his 
relinquishment of active work and attendance 
at the counting-room, but for several years after 
his removal to Pemberton Square his erect figure 

1 That part of the present Franklin Street immediately west of Federal 
Street. Here were built, in 1793, two rows of brick dwelling-houses, six- 
teen in number, the first blocks of connected dwellings erected in Boston. 
On the south side of the street these houses were in the form of a crescent, 
and in the middle of the street was a small enclosed park in which stood 
a monumental urn commemorative of Franklin. The houses being built 
on the "tontine" principle, although a charter to this effect was never 
obtained, Franklin Place was sometimes called "Tontine Crescent." 

2 These were held annually for many years at Christmas and New 
Year's time, beginning in 1842 at the house of Mr. Fuller, and after- 
wards, with few intermissions, at the houses of Mr. Pickering and Mr. 
Wigglesworth respectively; the New Year's parties are still continued by 
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pickering. (For an early invitation to family meet- 
ings, see Appendix G.) 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 257 

was a familiar sight as he walked briskly through 
Pemberton and Scollay squares on his way to and 
from Constitution Wharf. 

Two of his sons-in-law, Mr. Gould and Mr. 
Blanchard, were at this time his near neighbors, 
their houses being on the westerly side of Pem- 
berton Square. His daughter-in-law, Cornelia 
Goddard, in 1850 married Charles G. Loring, 
Esq., and lived in Ashburton Place, and Mr. 
Eaton in Bussey Place. Mr. Fuller and Mr. 
Pickering were at this time living in Roxbury, 
and Mr. Wiggles worth at No. 4 Franklin Place. 

Mr. Goddard died at his home in Pemberton 
Square on the 6th of August, 1853, at the age of 
eighty-six, his wife surviving him until January 
21, 1866. Both are buried in Mount Auburn 
Cemetery. 1 

Nathaniel Goddard's life was essentially that 
of the merchant and man of business. He neither 
held nor seemingly cared for public office, hold- 
ing "the private station to be the post of honor." 
In fact, his busy life almost precluded other occu- 
pation than the dealings of the street and market; 
yet, while the training of his life had been con- 
stantly directed to this goal, he was a close ob- 
server of public affairs, as is shown by the com- 

1 Mr. Goddard at one time owned, with his brother Benjamin, a tomb 
(No. 78) in the " Central Burial Ground" on Boston Common, to which 
allusion has heretofore been made. 



258 NATHANIEL GODDARD 

ments contained in his correspondence. In his 
political views he was independent; while con- 
demning the conduct of the government at the 
time of the Embargo, and its failure to protect 
American shipping interests, he was a believer in 
a strong executive and became a warm admirer 
of Andrew Jackson, 1 some of whose character- 
istics closely resembled his own, especially a firm 
persistence in a line of conduct once deliberately 
adopted. 2 His broad conceptions of fair trade 
between nations and his belief in the mutual 
advantages to be derived from its unfettered op- 
eration are seen in his letters and require no 
comment. 3 

A marked inclination to philosophic reflection, 
the outcome in part of a painfully acquired 
experience, and a keen sense of humor showed 
clearly in his common speech and conversation. 
Evidence of these is found in sundry bits of verse, 
homely proverbial sayings, and reflections upon 
life and character, written during the later years 

1 June 1, 1829, he wrote to Mr. B. A. Gould, "I am reconciled to Gen 
Jackson as President; it is understood that he is anti-tariff, and destruc- 
tion that was aimed at commerce may yet be avoided, though it is at a 
very low ebb." 

2 His indignation at the removal of the figurehead from the frigate 
Constitution was well remembered by his children. 

3 "It appears at present that Congress do not intend to relieve Com- 
merce, but rather to burthen it all they can. Several motions have been 
made and bills framed and presented for the object of relief, but they 
will not pass, — they hug the deformed, the monstrous bill of abomina- 
tions closer and closer." To Mr. Gould, Feb. 17, 1830. 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 259 

of his life. It has not been thought desirable to 
reproduce these, as many of them are marked 
by a sadness undoubtedly due to a sense of failing 
health ; but their general tenor shows a mind of 
marked originality dealing with the problems of 
life in the spirit of a sound and wholesome philo- 
sophy. The verses relate chiefly, though not en- 
tirely, to serious subjects; to man's place in the 
world and his relations to God, to Nature and 
God's place in Creation, and to man's treatment 
of and responsibility to his brother man. The 
stern theology of his boyhood days, embodied 
in the implacable justice of the Almighty, is met 
by a simple belief in the Divine goodness and 
mercy, while not abating a whit the unerring 
consequence of man's acts to his own nature and 
destiny. As we have seen, he came to be in re- 
ligious belief a Unitarian, a faith which has in 
most cases been adopted by his children and 
their descendants. In the lighter forms of versi- 
fication he had considerable skill, bits of rhymed 
sentiment often accompanying gifts to his grand- 
children and others, while odd fragments of 
nonsensical verse, with which he used to amuse 
the family circle, are remembered to this day. 
A few of the proverbs which he was fond of using 
and which are taken from a long list in his own 
handwriting, are the following: — 



260 Nathaniel goddard 

" Virtue which parleys is near a surrender." 
" Exercise, and temperance are the parents of health." 
" If you have nothing good to say, say nothing." 
" A just man fears nothing but his God." 
" Better be found in a correct road alone than with multitudes 
in a perverse way." 

One of the best remembered, and his own, show- 
ing the impression of a singularly uniform life, is : 

" Habit is n't second nature ; it is first nature." 

His recorded reflections are in line with his phi- 
losophy, and reveal the leading traits of his char- 
acter, — unresting energy, promptness, fair deal- 
ing, and a strong sense of justice and obligation 
in the conduct of affairs. Of his lasting remem- 
brance of past kindness, his ready sympathy with 
those in trouble and his desire to serve them, we 
have seen evidence in his letters. He undertook 
at various times the guardianship of property and 
persons where the claim was no other than that 
of a business acquaintance, notably in the case of 
Sarah Frances Pierce, granddaughter of Major 
Jacob Wood of Savannah, involving long-con- 
tinued and difficult duties in the care of the ward. 
He was also the guardian of Charles Bruce, his 
former supercargo, upon his becoming insane. 
His private life was unstained and his affections 
strong and lasting. His hospitality was so wide 
that Mrs. Goddard often said that the manage- 
ment of the Summer Street home was "like keep- 



NATHANIEL GODDARD 261 

ing a hotel." His tender care for his children is 
well illustrated by an incident which occurred 
in the childhood of his two oldest daughters. He 
had taken them with him in the chaise on one 
of his visits to Medford, where he was building a 
ship, when by collision with another vehicle the 
chaise was overturned in such a way that he must 
have fallen upon the children. By a dexterous 
movement he contrived to reverse the balance 
so that he himself fell underneath ; he was con- 
siderably hurt by the fall, but the children were 
unharmed. 

Mr. Goddard was an impulsive man, express- 
ing his opinions plainly and directly, and intol- 
erant of all quibbling and unnecessary delay. 
In his engagements he was punctuality itself, 
and was invariably to be found at the place of 
appointment awaiting his caller with a cheery 
"Come, sir, I 'm waiting for you." In this, as in 
other things, he was a firm believer in what would 
now be called "old-fashioned " habits, regretting 
the tendency towards looser methods of business 
and living which he thought he detected in the 
world about him during his later years. The 
discipline, and at times the hard usage, of a 
strenuous life had not, however, embittered a 
nature so open to kindly impulse and impression, 
and the memory of the merchant and the man is 



262 'NATHANIEL GODDARD 

of one just but generous in his judgments and, 
while intolerant of wrong-doing, helpful and 
considerate to those in trouble. A lover of exact 
truth and a diligent adherent to the standards of 
right living in which he had been trained from 
his youth, he endeavored to inculcate their prin- 
ciples in his children and to transmit them to his 
descendants. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX. 



December 28, 1772. 

At a meeting adjourned to hear the report of the Com- 
mittee appointed December 11, the Town voted: 

First : That the rights of the Colonists and this Province 
in particular as men, as Chrystians and as Subjects, as set 
forth in the Said Votes and Proceedings of the Town of 
Boston, are in the Opinion of this Town well Stated and 
appear to be founded on ye Laws of Nature, Divine Revela- 
tion, the British Constitution, and the Charter of this 
Province. 

Second : That the Infringement and violation of those 
Rights, as also Set forth therein, are in the Opinion of this 
Town great Grievances which this People have for years 
past been burdened with, and for the Redress of which 
Petitions and Remonstrances have been made, but hitherto 
in vain. 

Third: Voted the Raising of a Revennue within this 
Province by an assumed Power in the Brittishe House of 
Commons, to give and grant our Money without our Con- 
sent and appropriating the Money so Raised for the support 
of the Government of the Province and the Payment of 
the charges of the Administration of Justice therein So 
repugnant to the first Principles of a free Constitution and 
the obvious meaning and Spirit of the Royal Charter of 
this Province. 

Fourth : Voted that an Establishment for the Support 



266 APPENDIX 

of the Governor of the Province, and the Judges of the Su- 
perior Court, etc. (if the latter be already made as we have 
just reason to apprehend) to be paid out of the monies 
raised as aforesaid, independent of the Free Gifts and 
Grants of the Commons of this Province, are in the Opin- 
ion of this Town leading and alarming steps towards ren- 
dering the whole executive Power independent of the 
People, and setting up a despotic Government in the Pro- 
vince. 

Fifth: Voted that the Representative of this Town be 
and hereby is instructed to exert his utmost Powers and 
Abilities in the General Assembly with constant Persever- 
ance in promoting such Measures there as will speedily and 
effectually to Remove these and other intolerable Griev- 
ances enumerated in the aforesaid Votes and Proceedings 
of the Town of Boston. 

Sixth: Voted that the Freeholders and Inhabitants of 
the Town of Boston in thus clearly stating our Rights, and 
holding up so many of our Grievances in one View, have 
done an acceptable Service to this Town and Province and 
that the sincere and hearty thanks of this Town be hereby 
given to them therefore. 

Seventh: Voted that there be a Committee now chosen 
to write to the Committee of Correspondence in Boston and 
Communicate to them a true attested copy of the foregoing 
votes, and also further correspond with said Committee 
of Boston or any other Towns if they shall think it need- 
ful. 

The Committee chosen consisted of William Hyslop, 
Isaac Gardner, John Harris, Deacon Ebenezer Davis, 
Captain Benjamin White, Isaac Child, and John Goddard. 



APPENDIX 267 

B. 

The Arms of the Goddard Family are thus described: 
Gules, a chevron vair, between three crescents argent. 
Crest — a stag's head affrontee couped at the neck 
gules, attired or. 

Motto — Cervus non Servus. 

C. 

Dec. 8, 1798, President John Adams in his opening 
speech to Congress said : " The Commissioners appointed 
to determine what river was truly intended under the name 
of the river St. Croix mentioned in the treaty of peace, and 
forming a part of the boundary line therein described, have 
finally decided that question. On the 25th day of October 
last they made a declaration, that a river called Schoodic, 
which falls into Passamaquoddy Bay at its northwestern 
quarter, was the true St. Croix intended in the treaty of 
peace, as far as its great fork, where one of its streams 
comes from the westward, and the other from the north- 
ward; and that the latter stream is the continuation of the 
St. Croix to its source.' ' 

D. 

September 19, 1829, Mr. Gould, then in Europe, writes in 
his Journal: 

"We passed this day in the country with the family of 
Mr. Mertens, with which we were greatly pleased. The 
Chateau la Bassette is beautifully situated, and the grounds 
Mr. Mertens is working wonders with; he seems to have a 
great taste for agriculture and horticulture. He gave me an 



268 APPENDIX 

account of his house, the origin and present condition of the 
firm, and said they had more money than they could em- 
ploy in their business, and to ease the house of the burden 
of too much interest on the capital furnished by himself he 
bad invested very largely his private property in lands, 
which did not yield him but about three per cent, interest. 
He owns an immense tract of tillage land about a mile 
from his Chateau. But all he said was so well timed that it 
had no appearance of ostentation and a wish to display, 
but he desired to convince me as an affair of business that 
it was no hardship but rather a thing desirable to advance 
on shipments made to the house." 

E. 

On the 9th of October, 1829, Gould makes this entry 
in his Journal : — 

" It rained most of the day, but we made shift to get about 
and see the town [Zurich] in the morning, and in the P. M. 
we rode out to Ktissnacht to the church where Frederic was 
buried. The monument of polished black marble is placed 
in the eastern wall of the church outside, and is as fresh, 
and the letters of gold are as bright, as if they had been 
there but a few days instead of nine years. It is very neat 
and chaste, and in all respects fitting the object for which it 
was made. We found Mr. and Mrs. Keller at their house 
in Goldbeck. They seemed gratified by our visit and ap- 
peared to have taken an interest in this melancholy event 
never to be forgotten or outgrown. Mr. Keller still retains 
the clothes worn by Frederic when he was drowned; he 
took us to the spot where the body was brought ashore, then 
to a carriage-house at some rods distant where he showed a 



APPENDIX 269 

variety of implements prepared and ready to rescue from 
the water any unfortunate being who might meet a similar 
accident in that vicinity. I believe he has appropriated to 
this use the money which father sent him to pay the ex- 
pense he was at in consequence of this dispensation. 1 Our 
visit to this amiable and interesting family served to con- 
vince us of their kind and feeling disposition more thoroughly 
than ever, though they had given sufficient proofs before of 
disinterested benevolence. When Mr. Keller had shown us 
all that he could conveniently that he thought interesting, he 
said, * There is one thing more ' and took out his watch and 
showed the seal and key that were Frederic's. * These me- 
morials alone,' said he, 'I have reserved to myself and worn 
them from that time. Do you recognize them, madam ? ' 
said he to Lucretia, ' and will you not take them ? ' We 
parted from this kind friend not without emotion, after 
this interview so grateful to our feelings and so honorable 
to this estimable man. It seems quite surprising that so 
deep and lasting an interest should have been inspired by 
this event in a gentleman in a strange country, and a stranger 
to all the parties connected with it. Young Mr. Trotter with 
his parents and sister had recently made a visit to Kiiss- 
nacht, and had passed some days at Mr. Keller's house." 



In the summer of 1829 Mr. and Mrs. Gould visited Mr. 
Wordsworth and his family at Rydal Mount, and Mr. 



1 In addition to reimbursing them for expenses Mr. Goddard had sent 
to Mr. Keller and to the Reverend Mr. Hess each five hundred francs, 
to be appropriated " as they might think proper or as should be most 
congenial to their feelings." 



270 APPENDIX 

Gould makes this entry in his Journal under date of July 
8: — 

" We took a post chaise for Ambleside, seventeen miles, 
and called on Mr. Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, two miles 
short of Ambleside. We found the poet and his family at 
home; our letter from Mr. Southey, and the well-known 
calamity which befell his fellow traveller, Mr. F. W. God- 
dard, the brother of Mrs. Gould, soon made us all feel 
acquainted. Tea was served while we stayed, and Mrs. 
Wordsworth took Mrs. Gould to her chamber and read the 
parts of her journal through Switzerland which related to 
the separation from Mr. G. and his subsequent melancholy 
end. We engaged to return to breakfast the next morning 
in case we remained over night at Ambleside, and then 
took our leave. 

" 9th. Thursday. We slept at Ambleside and went up 
to Rydal Mount to breakfast. Mr. Wordsworth's family 
at home consisted of himself and lady, one son and one 
daughter; young Mr. Wordsworth is an Oxford scholar 
and is preparing for the Bar. At breakfast Mr. Words- 
worth was very fluent and almost eloquent at times in con- 
versation. He seemed to take a deep interest in public 
affairs, deprecated the Catholic Emancipation as much as 
Mr. Southey, and thought it fraught with danger. Indeed 
he intimated some doubt as to the permanent responsibility 
of the monied institutions of England, and was solicitous of 
placing in the United States funds some few thousand 
pounds sterling which he found it difficult to invest with 
security where he could realize any considerable interest. 
After breakfast we walked a mile or more over the grounds 
in the vicinity and viewed the falls of a small stream which 



APPENDIX ' 271 

are quite beautiful. When we were to take leave, Mr. 
Wordsworth said his daughter would drive Mrs. Gould to 
Ambleside in her chair with a pretty little pony ; the ladies 
rode forward, while Mr. Wordsworth and his son both 
walked with me to Ambleside, a degree of politeness not 
often shown to a stranger as the distance was two miles. 
We bid good-bye to these kind and hospitable friends and 
took the coach to Kendal, fourteen miles, where we spent 
the night." 

G. 

"There is at this date existing, in the possession of 
Ambrose Goddard of the Lawn, Swindon, a curious 
printed circular, much worm-eaten and partly obliterated, 
which he discovered in searching in an old chest. It has an 
ornamental border of twelve engraved shields, bearing the 
arms of the different branches of the Goddard family, 
interspersed with hearts; between the shields are scrolls 
with the names Wiltshire, Leicestershire, Star Chamber, 
Norfolk, Cheshire, Lincolnshire, Salisbury, Kent. The 
remainder are blanks. In the centre is the following invita- 
tion : — 

There is a friendly meeting 

Of those whose Sr name be 

Goddard 

Sr your company is lovingly desyred only for 

Socyetie and Acquaintance 

The times of meeting on the 5th day of every month in ye yeare, except 

on Sunday, then on ye following, from Lady daye to Michaelmas at 6, 

from Michaelmas to Lady daye at 4 o'clock in the afternoon at the 

Red Bull behind St. Nicholas Shambles, called Mount Goddard Streete. 

At the beginning and end of the first sentence there 
are admirable monograms containing the letters of the 



272 APPENDIX 

name of Goddard. The impression is from an engraved 
plate, well executed ; these is no date, but I think it may be 
referred to the early part of the Seventeenth Century. 
'Goddard, Gutter Lane, Sculpt ' inscribed at one corner." 
[From a letter of Rainald W. K. Goddard to Miss Mary 
Watson (Mrs. George H. Wright), dated October, 1896.] 



